Mind-altering Alterations Washington DC

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Sometimes clothing is just fine in its present form, but it just needs a little something. I usually come across people who just want a little pizzazz and individuality added to their garment. However, this may also be your choice of reconstruction to fix a poor fit, hide away stains or spruce up a worn ’n torn favorite piece. With my sewing machine in the window front of my boutique, I am often asked that dreaded question, “do you do alterations?” While I like to help my neighbors and friends out with most quick-fix-its, it’s not all that exciting to my creative spirit to just take up a regular hem. My compromise has been to do what I call “creative alterations.” These types of interesting alterations are visible and thus take the garment to a new level of style. Some tricks to push it up a notch include:

Sewing a hem with contrasting color thread

Taking in a seam with the seam placed externally

Decorative patching on wear ’n tear

Decorative stitching on patches as well as on hems

Decorative painting over stains

This type of reconstructing clothing is exciting for all levels of skill and creativity. It is the best way for the novice to get started and get some practice with the basics of reconstruction. There are a lot of no-sew options with this method. For those who don’t have a machine, this type of reconstruction can allow for a little bit of hand-sewing to go a long way. These little reconstruction touches are perfect for those pieces that you are on the fence about cleaning out of your closet! Lots of clothing is functionally well-made and practical. But it can also be boring, not to mention looking exactly like every other piece that was massproduced from the same factory! These types of less intense reconstruction techniques serve to elevate your ho-hum hoodie to a truly unique piece of self-expression!

Clothing for cloth
I very rarely use this type of reconstruction, but it is a valuable option. This type involves dismantling the existing garment and salvaging the cloth for other projects. You may choose to do this for a variety of reasons:

The fabric is gorgeous but the garment is horrible

The garment shape is unable to be maintained due to style or other pitfalls

The garment is excessively large

The fabric is an oh so precious vintage

The fabric is of high quality, such as silks

The fabric has extensive beadwork or other embellishments that you
would like to save

The garment has sentimental significance, but the style and fit are not for you In taking apart existing clothing to make use of the fabric, the skill level needed depends highly on the intended project for it. Because the garment is being transformed first to flat fabric, the use of a flat pattern is appropriate, and thus familiarity with using patterns is helpful. However, there are several projects in this book that make use of flat fabric scraps in this way. Here’s a list to refer to:

Renaissance Repairs Pants

Detachable Bustle Skirt

Repetition Editions Jeans

Whip Up a Wine Bag

Freeform and Frill Skirt

Casing Your Cozies Pillowcases

Quintessential Quilt

Sachet Simplicity

Pragmatic Potholders

Put Your Money Where Your Scraps Are Wallet — Chapter 20 What do you do when your heart can’t let go of a piece, but it can’t bear to watch it hang wastefully in the storage closet? In creating flat fabric from these pieces you can incorporate them into a quilt to curl up with and cherish those memories. I’ve heard examples of this done with retired work shirts and special occasion dresses. This type of reconstructing clothing is actually a great way to learn about garment construction. By taking things apart you can figure out how they were put together!

Trash to treasure
There is still yet another form of reconstruction that takes it all to a whole new level. Turning trash into garments is a much more extreme form of reconstructing clothes. Basically, this technique involves recycling non-clothing items, trash, and refashioning it into articles of clothing and accessories. For a variety of reasons, this particular method is not explored much among the projects of this book. From Garbage to Gorgeous in Chapter 20, is the only project that even remotely comes close to characterizing this method. Even then, its inclusion is debatable since the trash component is textile scraps. While I have seen found objects and other “trash” items recycled into the decoration of a wearable clothing item or accessory, I have yet to see a fully recycled trash piece that is functionally wearable. Hence the reason why I haven’t presented projects of this sort for you in this book. The projects in this book are for wearing, using and re-using as much as possible! Reconstructed trash pieces fall in a range closer to artwork than clothing. They make statements on recycling, often using small items that we never even think twice about tossing away:

Plastic grocery bags

Candy wrappers

Music cassette tapes

Bottle tops

Paperclips

CAUTION or DANGER tape used by police, firemen, and construction workers

Bicycle tire inner tubes
I must say that while these reconstructed pieces are intriguing and often whimsical, their lack in functionality leaves me wanting something more. I’d like to see functional pieces and practical uses of these recycled materials. Accessories and outerwear hold more hope for this, as their need for washing is significantly less than daily wear. I don’t mean to discourage you from experimenting with this method, but I do encourage you to make it as viable as you possibly can.

Shop therapy!
I had a really bad breakup in my early twenties.
Really bad! I found myself in a sea of not knowing who I was without my “boyfriend” and our pre-planned life together all spelled out for me. Ugh, even that sentence alone is just filled with societal definitions, expectations, and limitations! How did I handle it? Shopping! With my girlfriend in tow, or vice versa, I spent a major chunk of my student loan money for the semester in a single corporate-owned chain store! I walked out with nearly an entire new wardrobe, a virtual replica of the TV sitcom starlet of the times, as well as just about every other mainstream female age 18–35. I needed it. I needed the stability of some sort of definition of who I was, even if it wasn’t truly me! Clothing can provide this therapeutic function at times. There’s nothing wrong with that!

Regretful give-aways
A couple friends of mine have a playful banter back and forth about clothing. They tease each other on who got the hottest new thing off the rack first (all local designer racks mind you!) They also hand things off to each other from time to time. Yay! Hand-me-downs for adults! Recently I did some creative alterations on a zip-up fleece for one of them. It was a beautiful color but huge and boxy and altogether boring! Turns out it was a hand-me-down from the other woman. A few weeks later she taunted her friend, “how’s that big old fleece working out for you?” She was utterly dismayed to hear about the fantastic new form it had taken. She, herself, could have been the proud new owner of this tricked-out fleece if only she’d remembered about reconstructing. Don’t let this happen to you — always remember the possibilities with creative alterations.

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