9 Ways to Make Your Boring Fashion Awesome

I've been talking already about doing a little nip & tuck and sprucing up of clothing in various threads, for example here under "Think outside of the box". Today I am going a bit more into detail with the topic and am giving you a little list (well it's more like a collection of spreckles) of ideas & resources. Take old, plain or boring clothes and give them a second awesome life. Now, I was mainly thinking about what you already have in your wardrobe, but of course, it also can apply to those thrift finds.

1. Chop It Off - Free Style

This is something that's been around even with expensive clothes lately. Free style chops without hems or random holes trying to get some used and abused feeling. I kind of like it, I've always had that attraction to clothing with a dystopian vibe (see also my hooded dress here) but, no I wouldn't buy a brand shirt with holes in it for a gazillion bucks if I can just take a thrifted one and do it myself, thank you very much.

I have actually already tried this with the crew neck shirts I use under the karate-gi, I cut off the thicker neck part and I must say I love how the neckline falls (more boaty) and the whole thing feels much more comfy for some reason, so I plan to do this to a couple of my better t-shirts for outer wear too for summer looks.

Turn long sleeve into short sleeve, sleeveless, chop yourself a crop top or a pair of denim shorts. The latter ones really are better with frayed hems in my humble opinion.

2. Chop It Off - and add proper hems

That dress you just don't like the bottom fit anymore but it has too fabulous of a print? Turn (or have it turned) into a top. That buttoned shirt with the long sleeves that you never wear like this? Turn it into a short sleeve or sleevesless blouse. A longer top can become a crop top. A maxi can become midi (or shorter)

3. Add on

Well well well, who said you can only chop off? You can also add on! Make that skirt, top or dress longer by adding some fabric. Maybe even in a different color, print or material. Think Desigual, think color blocking, think lace hems 1/lace hems 2. Make the add-on peblum or patterned color block peblum. Add sleeves to that sleeves dress / shirt / top / jacket.

4. Embellish

Add some new embellishments to your old clothes. Embellished stuff is all the rage right now. Especially those made of shiny crystals or pearls. I've got myself a couple of rhinestone crystals at the craft shop where I get most of my jewelry supplies. Here you can see some examples of what I mean. I plan to use them to spruce up something, I just haven't decided yet whether I go for a top or for a pair of jeans.

You can also add patches, another "all the rage right now" thing. It is easy to do with those iron on patches. Personally I would go for something like this darth vader helmet or *Love*. And if you take the big square sheets you could even make your own shape or pattern. By the way, here's a whole box of patch cuteness.

Or sew on some more buttons. Bows. Add Studs or Grommets ... The sky and your creativity are the limits. I love both the crotchet string word & the cat face.

As an added bonus, all these work quite well to cover up little holes or the stitching of closing those little holes and rips, unless you want to go for the above mentioned dystopian vibe.

Additional iron on patch tip: If they get loose during washing, you can simply re-iron them on. Otherwise, just double fixate them with a little stitching.

5. Make it into something else entirely

This is something I've talked about already when talking about thrift stores. You can take a pair of pants and turn them into a skirt and this is a fairly common tutorial. But did you know that you can also take a skirt or dress and turn them into pants or a jump suit respectively? Or a man's dress shirt can become a summer dress? Both Skirts or old t-shirts can become a maxi-dress.

6. Dye it!

Simply change the color of the garment. Die it fully in a new color, or do a tie dye where you, well tie off parts of the garment that won't take the color. Here you can find a tutorial for the famous spiral tie dye, so you get an idea, but you can easily just do it with only one color. Here is one for a heart shape.

Or do a dip dye, where you only put parts of the garment into the dyeing liquid. One color or more colors as you like. Depending on the soak in time and/or color amount used, you can achieve a gradient or ombre effect. Or do a combination of both methods! Some fun ideas & tutorials can be found here.

7. Bleach it

This pretty much works like dyeing, only that you take away color from the garment instead of adding color. You can use it to get bleached tie dye or ombre effects or just sprinkles. For some inspiration and tutorials, go here: Brit&Co - 15 D.I.Y. bleach projects

On that note, also check out this tutorial for awesome galaxy jeans.

8. Or simply use it in an unusual way

Simply use your present items in an unusual way. One thing I rather often see is using a button down shirt as a skirt. Maxi skirts with elastic waist turned into a tube dress. Get wildly creative here. And share it with us #funkyjunglestyle

Bonus: Become a Ninja with a black t-shirt!

9. Any combination of the above! 

Who said you could only do one of the above mentioned things at the same time? Get creative mixing & matching methods. Don't be boring, let your freak fly. Or as I like to call it "be funky"

More awesome links to awesome refashion:

Trash to Couture

Honestly WTF D.I.Y section

Merrick's Art

My "Pimp your Fashion" Pinterest Board (under construction)