- Creativity is making something imaginative and marvelous out of something ordinary, even discarded.

Remember, apply your rules and your tools, and you're free.

Today, I'll share an unusual perspective on where to look for fashion fabrics.

Consider sale items at a store or the clearance table at a garage sale.

Those are places where fabrics hide.

New garments might look fabulous when made from old garments.

Today, I hope to change your view of fabric shopping forever on Fit 2 Stitch.

(peaceful music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton, (gentle piano music) Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

- We're just gonna have so much fun today.

Remember that whole perspective thing?

Well, we're gonna take it up a notch and change it just a little bit.

My favorite time of shopping is probably, obviously clearance.

Like, who doesn't like to buy clearance?

But the problem with clearance is, there's never your size, there's never this, there's whatever, but I'm gonna take you down a little path that you don't have to worry about what size it is.

Just go large, just go large.

Find the fabric you like, and just buy the biggest size they have, and then you have all kinds of freedom, because what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this, and we're going to, gimme a minute, we're going to change it to something that works a little bit better, and obviously is a little more flattering.

We're gonna change it to this.

All right, and we're gonna show you how to do that.

So I loved the color.

And lemme tell you something, this is cashmere, and what we know about cashmere is cashmere is very expensive to buy by the yardage.

Like, not only is it expensive, it's almost prohibitive to buy cashmere knit.

We can find cashmere woven, because men's suitings have cashmere, and so that's a little bit more readily available, but when it comes to cashmere knit, it is just, I mean, in all the places I go, New York, wherever, it's really hard to find, and when you find it it's hundreds of dollars per yard.

So it's really not affordable to even sew it, find it, and a lotta times when I do find it, it's at a ridiculously high price.

So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna buy our cashmere ready-made.

And it doesn't just apply to cashmere, obviously, cashmere is just a good example because it is difficult to find.

We can do it on so many different things.

We're gonna go from cashmere all the way to denim, and I'm gonna show you how to do this.

Okay, so I've done my shopping, and before we get into this, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna, because it's a knit, I'm gonna take my favorite T-shirt pattern, remember, that's where I'm gonna take this into.

I have my two base tops, I have my tank top and I have my T-shirt.

I wouldn't do the tank top, because this is not a woven, it's a knit, so I'm gonna use my T-shirt, because it's a knit body.

All right, but I wanna walk you through some examples.

Let's take a look at the mannequins, 'cause we've got some really good examples of things I've already done, so that you can really see how to just look at things and how to change what you're looking at.

So I saw this little wrap.

It was on sale, ridiculously, like way, like it started at $500, and it was below $100.

I thought, that's a deal, that's a deal.

And for cashmere, again, to get a whole top for 100 bucks or under is really a great deal.

Now I even got less, I got down to $40 for the top.

But what it did is I loved this little ruffle, and I had seen tops in ready-to-wear with this little ruffle on it, and you know, that's something sewers can't do, we can't knit a ruffle.

And I know if you knit, you can, and that's reason to knit, but if you're a sewer, you can't knit a ruffle, but you can buy it.

So if you notice what I did on this is the placement of it, and when we go to remake the pink, I'll show you how to place, how to get the bottoms, I'll show you how to keep all of those things.

All I do is place my sleeve down at the bottom, so I can take what was just a straight wrap, and I can turn it into my favorite T-shirt.

I can make it the length I want, et cetera, et cetera.

This is just a wrap, but I see it now as yardage.

And I can measure how wide it is, I can measure how much it is, I know how much fabric requirements my T-shirt takes, so it's easy to go from here to here.

Notice on this one I had binding at the bottom and binding at the top.

So when I'm looking for details that I like to preserve, you wanna notice some of those things.

This had a raw edge at the bottom, why?

Because the original top had a raw edge at the bottom, and it was just too large, and I cut it down.

So, I have much more variety actually in colors that I like if I'm shopping ready-made garments or ready-made knits that are already in the store.

All right, so let's do a layout.

The only thing I want you to notice about this is I love the edging on this.

It's actually an armhole on this shawl, but that could be a neckline, and then I could put my T-shirt pattern on top of that.

So we'll put that aside.

So, I'm gonna walk you through what I've done so that you can decide what you like about it, what you don't like about it, and then you can change whatever it is you don't like.

I loved the pink.

It's not a color I had a lot of, and I just decided I really, really liked it.

I went shopping, there was lots of extra large, there was not anything else except for that size.

So I decided to buy, I wanted the jacket, I decided to make the jacket.

But once I did that, it was hard to find something that I liked to go with it, so I actually went back and got another one.

I thought I'd make the T-shirt underneath.

So, the first thing I did was I made the jacket.

We'll actually go there first.

Or actually, let's do the T-shirt first, because the T-shirt, number one is a little simpler, and number two, I'm actually literally gonna make this for you so that you can see it happen.

I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna put the side seams together.

I'm gonna lay this as flat as possible.

Now, because I already know by laying this down, if I just take one part of my pattern piece, and you can see how much more I have than the garment, I'm going to make some quick assumptions, and I'm gonna get rid of my side seams.

Because, remember what we've learned, flat is always easier to work with, so I don't need the side seams, I'm gonna get rid of those.

And let me just say that it's fair that you don't have to start out with cashmere.

You could start out with something inexpensive, real expensive, and then just work your way up to where you have the confidence to just take your shears and go crazy on the cashmere, okay.

So, it'll take a little bit of time, but trust me, it's not any good the way it is, you saw that I looked like the local bag lady, so, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Okay, so I don't wanna cut the shoulder seam, because I didn't change any of that.

You can see as it goes over my neckline, all of that's the same.

I didn't even change the shoulder seam.

What I wanna do is preserve this beautiful knit ribbing down the front, and that's what you also have to decide, you have to look at it and say, "What do I like about it?

"What do I wanna preserve, "and where do I want my pattern to start from?"

So again, I'm cutting the other side, I'm gonna cut the sleeve out, and we're gonna cut off the side seams.

And I've done that.

And now you're gonna kinda recognize it as yardage.

All right, so the top I have on below is sleeveless.

So I'm gonna lay this out, and you can see obviously that's much easier, it is important to just be careful to line everything up, to make sure it's quick and easy and even.

All right, so this is top number one now, this is the base that I have on underneath, and you can see, I had to have a seam up the center front, because I made it into a little V-neck.

So what I did is I laid the pattern at the shoulder seam, and how low I wanted that V to come.

So on me, a V-neck is usually like six or seven inches down, so I knew that right about in here is where this needed to be sewn together so that it would actually make the V. So just in your wardrobe, put a shirt on, measure how low you like that neckline, and then measure that on your top so that you'll know, that's where I'm gonna put the pattern.

I'm gonna put the shoulder point here, the center front here, the center front can move either way this way, the farther I put it down, the farther that V-neck is going to go, and so you can decide exactly what you want.

So, I'm going to fold that back just so kinda to keep that clear.

That's where I wanted the V-neck, that will go with the shoulder seam, and then there it is.

I'm gonna cut all this off.

I left it long, so you don't cut off anything there, and then you just continue.

I have a French dart in my T-shirt.

If you don't, you just follow your T-shirt pattern, is all you do, in the front, the back is much easier.

Very simple to do.

Just, it changes our perspective as to how to lay it out and how to do all of that.

So that was my base, because I decided I wanted both the base and the little cardigan both out of the same fabric.

So what I'm going to do, though, is show you now how to cut the cardigan.

And because, again I leave that shoulder point there, all of this becomes the wrap.

As we wrap something, we want it to go past center front, so I'm actually gonna leave all of that, and the only thing I'm actually gonna worry about is this portion over here.

And if you're worried that it's not enough, you could swing this a little bit this way and give yourself a little more hip area.

And then I go, and I start at the bottom.

Scary stuff, huh?

It's actually just amazing how quick and simple this is, and I say all the time, "Let's go shopping for fabric."

"Where do you wanna go?"

"Well, I wanna go to the mall."

"But there's no fabric stores there."

Oh, there are.

There's fabric everywhere, okay?

So, remember, and the whole reason we did fitting is because it's really important to make sure our pattern fits.

If you don't have any confidence in your fitting, then this whole process just doesn't work.

Coming up to the shoulder area.

It was important for me that it not be really wide.

The difference between that first one I had on, it just swallowed me, and too big is never a positive.

You're never gonna look better by putting too much over, and it's absolutely our first instinct, is to just kinda cover it all up.

It just doesn't.

It won't go away, it won't look better.

I want a silhouette.

I don't wanna be tight, but I want a silhouette.

So because I wanted this at my shoulder, this is really important to have this part come in.

And right there, when I get to that back, I stop, because remember, the whole thing's gonna stay together.

And I take this away, and I'm done with the front.

And I know that that's going to be perfect.

I'm gonna go over, I'm gonna sew the French dart, I'm gonna do all of that.

All right, so let's go to the back, and I'm just gonna switch this around, and we're gonna continue on the back.

Now, the back has a belt, and I like the belt.

I really like the belt.

However, because it was too large circumference-wise, it was too large, the belt was low, lower than I liked it.

So I just kinda carefully looked at the top, and I just, remember that knits are knitted, but if you understand that many times after they're knitted, they do a process which is called cut and sewn.

Rarely is the whole entire knit garment actually knitted.

It's cut and sewn.

So, I could look at this and see that this was a cut and sewn product.

So I just carefully snipped right along, and I took off my belt.

I'm not gonna take it off now, but that's what I did.

And even if it left a mark below, it didn't matter, because what I was doing was raising the belt up.

I wanted it higher.

So just kind of have fun with this and think through, don't do it when you're like crazily tired, you know, give yourself some respect that when you're tired, you don't make the same smart decisions that you do when you're not tired.

And just, like I said, have fun with it.

Okay, so now I'm ready for my back piece.

I'm gonna lay the width of the shoulders the same, so where I'm gonna start is right there, my pattern has seam allowance built into it, I don't have to worry about that.

I'm gonna lay the belt down, because I want to include the belt.

Keep in mind that I wanna get rid of my seam allowance when I'm thinking of length.

In this case, it just doesn't make a difference, because I'm going way longer than my actual pattern is, anyway.

I'm gonna give myself a little extra room circumference.

Just remember when you're cutting out, if you're not sure whether to go a little bigger or smaller, you can always reduce.

If you cut it one time and you cut it smaller than it should be, that's just not a fun place to be.

Because I wanna leave that belt on for now, I'm just gonna fold it back here so I don't cut through it, and the same with this bottom layer, I'm just gonna put that back through as well.

All right, and there we go, and let's just go ahead and cut.

(laughs) I'm like the mad scientist here on the cashmere table.

All right, just make sure that belt is outta your way, just take a minute to be careful.

If you have to cut single layer, you can, you don't have to cut double layer.

I've got plenty of width to go there.

And here I go, and I just reach right up to the same place that I came on the front.

And this is all my scraps.

I showed my girlfriend this project, and she said, "Oh, look at all the stuff you can do with these scraps."

That's not me.

But, it's not to say you can't do a whole lot of stuff with the scraps.

They are cashmere scraps, and that would be a good thing.

Okay, so now you see I've got my T-shirt in a cardigan.

Is that cool?

We're gonna go sew it in just a minute.

But let's look at these sleeves, because these sleeves were absolutely the worst possible.

So, a couple things you need to know about your sleeve, I've got my T-shirt sleeve.

This thing just billowed, and I totally get that it's style, and I get all that, I just don't like it.

And I think it just looks really not good.

So, typically when you cut out a sleeve, you lay it open, and you cut all around it.

You could do that, but you don't need to do that, you don't need to spend the time doing that.

This is where your seam is.

The underarm seam is where the sleeve is joined.

So I want the ribbing, I want all of that, I'm gonna put it up as high as I possibly can, and I'm gonna follow the shaping of my cap.

So, I'm sorry, you're gonna cut on this side.

I'm actually gonna put it as high as I can on here.

Notice here you have some billowing out from your sleeve?

That is on the sleeve, but you don't really see it, because the total circumference is correct, and so it has a tendency to not show.

And so, like I said, just kind of put that there the best you can, and this is where you're gonna cut up.

Remember again, the sleeve has seam allowance on it.

So I actually cut through the band, because I didn't want the band to be that big, and you just cut straight up.

And you're gonna get rid of these floppy things here.

And then obviously the most important part is to cut this cap, because that is what gives us such a great fit.

Okay, let's go to the sewing machine.

All right, so the first thing we're gonna sew is we're gonna get these French darts to be just like we like 'em, or whatever you have in your T-shirt.

If you don't have darts in your T-shirt, then you don't have to worry about that point.

But I like darts, and I think they're flattering, so we're gonna sew a few darts.

And all of this can be done for the sewing machine.

And again, keep in mind that you really want to match those threads.

In ready-to-wear, they're very cautious to match threads.

They're very particular about matching threads, just simply because, it just doesn't look good if you don't.

In this case I'm using a gray, just so you can see it, but I would definitely match your threads.

Okay, so there's the side.

You can see that because my pattern is right, the two sides are going to match.

If you're not sure about it, and I'm gonna go ahead and put my sleeve in, if you're not sure, you can baste it together, and don't worry about it just yet.

Just do a basting, that basting'll kinda get your confidence.

I'm gonna set the sleeve in.

I do that by putting the sleeve on the bottom.

But another thing I would do is I would probably, I surged this.

Because surging is so popular in ready-to-wear.

But if you're not sure, then you can just baste it in.

This is the sleeve, I'm setting in the sleeve, I've got the sleeve on the bottom, and when I cut out the sleeve, I didn't actually cut out all of that seam, because I wanted every bit of that cap that I could possibly have.

And because I wanted every bit of that part, I knew it would be included in the seam allowance, so, I left it so that I would have as much as possible.

All right, so I've done my sleeve.

I'm gonna take that pin out.

I sewed right through my pin.

I don't often do that, but when I have a thicker fabric, you can get away with more.

Okay, so now look at that, I've got a set-in sleeve that's on my cardigan.

It's just gonna look so much better.

I'm gonna do up the side seam so you can really see the shaping that it's gonna take.

When you're down here, remember, I reduced the size of that cuff.

Just make sure that the bottom there is even.

Now, a lot of times what I'll do is I'll do it on my sewing machine, because sewing machine are more exact than sergers, and then I'll pick it up on my serger.

So this is the sleeve that I'm doing right now, and I'm just going up and then doing the side seam.

If you're nervous about it, do a baste first, we all know how to baste.

And then when I get to this portion on the back, where I unpicked that belt a little bit, I'm enough out of the seam allowance, I don't have to worry about that.

The bottom, again, I want to meet.

So just kinda look ahead in your sewing.

Just to make sure it's all gonna come together.

This is just so fun.

All right, let's go back to the table.

We've done half, so we've done enough that you can see what's going on and how exciting this is.

All right, so let's turn it inside out, and look at my extra large.

Lotta times just for fun, I even leave the tag in, because it's an extra large, who cares?

Who cares what size it is?

But boy, look at the difference that's become now, and look at that sleeve!

Look, it's like me!

It's just really fun.

So keep in mind that, don't let the piece overwhelm you, just think about where does the pattern go, where do I start, where do I reduce down, and you see that this belt comes around the back, I don't even, all I have to do is do a dart, if my T-shirt has one, and then I set in a sleeve, and I do the side seam.

And that's it, so you can see the sewing on this is really, really quick.

I wanna show you one other example.

The only question I always have that someone'll say to me is, "Well, did you make that?"

And I'm never quite sure how to answer that question.

Kind of, sort of.

Not sure if I did or not.

I did some sewing.

They really don't wanna know all that.

You can just say yes or no and just figure out what you wanna do.

But let's look at denim for a little bit.

Now, the process of denim, this is a stonewash, and so with a stonewash, and again, you're gonna do the same process, because it's the side seam where things are going to get lost.

So I'm gonna cut out that, and I'm gonna cut out the sleeve, because what you know with a lotta the garments we're doing is they're just way too big, and they come way over the shoulders.

But here's the coolest thing about this shirt.

Watch this.

Now I'm going to my blouse pattern.

Remember our good ol' blouse pattern?

We're gonna use that.

If you think about this, I don't have to do any of this.

Like if you haven't sewn before, you could do this.

My front facing is all done.

I've got plenty of length.

You can put your dart in, your shoulder seams, your collar, your placket on your sleeves, all of that is done!

This is just way cool.

I can take my sleeve pattern.

Remember again, fold it in half, and go for the seam that you can control, which is that seam up there, this seam can't be.

So you can see here, I can now cut a nice sleeve cap, and I can cut all that away, and then I'm just gonna put it all back together.

Things like this, you're gonna watch your thread color, 'cause you want it to match.

You're gonna watch the type of seaming, there's a flat-fell seam, you wanna redo that, but the good news is, they're all on seams that are under the arm and on the side seam, so if you can't match them perfectly, it's not gonna make a difference.

So the goal is, get that perspective to be a little bit different.

I even start looking at shawls where, again, that'd be a great neckline.

You know, what else could I do with that?

So, when I hear women say to me that they don't enjoy shopping, I'm just totally convinced that they're just not looking for the same things I'm looking for.

And I realize I'm a little off the fence, but when you go to do a shirt like this, a blouse, and you typically have five pieces, you have your blouse front, your blouse back, your front facing, your collar, and your sleeve, you can leave off 50% of those pieces.

All you need now is your front, your back, and your sleeve, that's really not 50%, but it's close.

So the good news is, you can save yourself a lotta work, and really you can save yourself a lot of money, because we know is thrift shops, all those kinda places have fabulous finds.

We just need to visit 'em and go from there.

An old slogan says it well, a little dab will do ya.

Next time we'll show how minimalism applies to embroidery and T-shirts.

Join us next time right here as we show you all how to do that on Fit 2 Stitch.

(gentle piano music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton, Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

(peaceful music) To order a four-DVD set of Fit 2 Stitch series eight, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.