December Giveaway: Cut-up Couture
Edgy Upcycled Garments to Sew By Koko Yamase
In keeping with my current challenging makes = sewing joy (aka, using my brain makes me happy) outlook, I’ve picked something a little different for this month’s giveaway. Cut-Up Couture is an awesome patternless-designs book (in English, translated from the Japanese) that shows you how to upcycle/ convert thrifted sweatshirts, t-shirts and men’s shirts into elegant, wearable, feminine garments (you don’t have to upcycle garments to make these items, you could make them from stash fabric if you’re trying to focus on using up what you already own-an admirable pursuit in and as of itself). The style is versatile and very contemporary; a lot of these techniques could be employed to add a bit of pizzaz to regular patterns and give them that haute-modern edge.
The first half of the book focuses on items made from stretch-knit fabrics and is shot entirely in black and white (I.e. Greyscale). Some of my favourites from this section are shown below.
I particularly like the blouse with buttoned shoulders (also featured on the book cover) because it can be worn a few different ways-the skirt version is my favourite.
The second half focuses on woven fabrics harvested (often with little modification) from men’s shirts and includes instructions for Japanese-style camisoles, tunics and even a bubble skirt similar to this one. The third section focuses on using scarfs, neckties and other accessories to make capes and smaller accoutrements (and accents on other garments-see Table of Contents below).
The instructions are concise and clearly illustrated with labelled diagrams on the modifications/ grids required to create each garment.
If you need further inspiratation to get yourself fired up for some eco-positive refashioning, here’s some links to peruse:
Have you upcycled/ improved anything recently? Leave a link to the relevant blogpost/ flickr/ instagram URL in the comments so we can all check it out (by we, I mean everyone reading this post-I do not refer to myself in the third person-I did however, greatly enjoy the public prosecutor referring to herself in the third person while arresting George Remus).
Giveaway open internationally, rules for entry here.
All images remain copyright of their respective owners and are used here for purposes of illustration and discussion.
Last summer, my attempt to upcycle an old and classic Diesel jean jacket into an updated, waist-length version ended in tears of remorse as the jacket ended up too short. I still lose sleep over this.
But I recently made my daughter some pjs out of her dad’s shirts. More like recycling than upcycling but the shirts were totally trampy at cuffs and collar yet the fabric yummily crisp everywhere else. http://www.sew2pro.com/mao-top-and-jodhpurs-jimjams
Great giveaway (hope I win…)
I love trawling charity shops, and have just started out in dressmaking, so I think I would love this book!
This book sounds great. There is a course on Craftsy about tailoring rtw clothes that I have been considering as well.
What a great giveaway. I like the idea of upcycling, but I often find it hard. On pinterest there is a board recykleren, with a two week blog initiative a year in Belgium to share ideas and inspiration. Thus year I reused a men’s toe in a pocket for my hard disk
ooo i love the idea of this book! i got one for my birthday too which had a similar take and even looked at ideas on how to make clothes out of bedsheets etc. I have done 2 sort of refashions: here and here.
I like both a lot and want to go through my wardrobe to see what I could do to wear other items more!
That looks really cool. There are tons of refashioning books out there and I think most of them are really similar or just embellish stuff, but this has some really cool different ideas!
I actually am about to morph an old button-down tunic of my mother’s into a shirtdress for myself. Minimal transformations (reducing shoulder length + resetting sleeve, closing the side slit). I will have to post it on my blog. I don’t do them often but one of my very first sewing projects as a teen was to turn one of my mother’s UFOs into bias bound summer pjs I wore to death. Very interested in this book.
Right now working on a last-minute dress for an event on Wednesday so it doubles as my Birthday Dress this year.
Very cool. I am a fan of cutting up tshirts and turning them into dresses, so this definitely looks like an interesting book.
Ooh, that sounds like an interesting book! Count me in!
What a lot of creative ideas! Not for my more tailored style, but I would love to see what other people do with this. Here’s a link for a recycle project I finished in the Spring.
Just remade the shirt to home skirt, nothing special but pretty comfy for home%))
I’ve had this book on my wish list for a while, but are yet to purchase. How ace would it be to win it? I’ve not entered the world of refashioning yet. My excuse is that I have a large stash of fabric to work through first. Winning this book could just change things though!
Thanks for the opportunity! I am currently refashioning a men’s jersey t-shirt into a nursing top (okay, two men’s jersey t-shirts into one nursing top). The creativity displayed in the book and on the three blogs is inspiring. I am also inspired by your blog; I have been following you for some time and very much appreciate your wit and thirst for mental challenges.
“Tuck sleeves inside to create pockets” – bloody genius!
You are always talking about great books I never even heard about! This looks great.
Refashion?Last week I refashioned one of my husband t-shirts into knickers and a thong… he wasn´t happy. Just trying my hand at underwear!
Hahaha yea Carl hid one of his new jeans after I expressed an interest in the material they were comprised of.
Using sleeves as pockets is so clever. I think I’m going to steal that for some other projects.
Ooh, this looks like a fun and interesting book! That idea of turning sleeves into pockets – brilliant! I may just have to “acquire” a mens tshirt and try that out…..
This looks like a lot of fun. I got started with sewing by re-purposing thrift store clothes, and I forget sometimes how much fun it can be to throw technique out the window and just attack something with a pair of scissors and a creative impulse.
This book sounds great. I love the idea of re-designing something from the charity shop. Sometimes you can find wonderful knits but the cut is awful, so this is a good solution.
I have a big pile of old clothes I just cant get rid off because i am gradually turning them into new, more intersting outfits. i hate throwing away and love transforming garments and giving them a new life. here‘s a link to my latest 60s dress made out of a giant scarf!
I love it! Those colours are awesome and I love that you used up an old op-shopped thing to make a totally new, functional thing! Keep rockin’!
PS when you link to articles in your blog, make sure you click on the header of the post you’re linking to and use that as link rather than the URL of the blog itself. Otherwise, as you add posts it becomes more and more difficult for people to find the specific post you’re referring to. Also, disqus instead of recaptchas please.
Fantastic! This would be great in helping me re-purpose maternity clothes that are now way too big.
Amazing book! I made a couple of upcycle but it was many months ago:1, 2, 3, 4, 5
I would love this book!
This book looks great! As to your recent question to me posted on my blog, I would not say that I sew. I can sew things, and do minor alterations. When I was younger, I was always cutting things up, altering clothing, making weird things… I guess this would be called upcycling long before I ever heard the term… but in any case, I used to always change something about garments, including fashioning accessories and things out of other pieces of clothing. I think this was due to basic factors like I hated everything off the rack, nothing fit me right, because of my family I was stuck with what I felt were really undesirable clothing designs.
But these days, I hardly do such projects any more. I have ideas that I’ve failed to execute due to devoting my time to other things, but still imagine that I’ll finish some day. Instead, I’ve focused more on finding the correct items for me off the rack. Would still like to customize things, but I want a polished-looking finished product. Which is why this book looks great — the designs are not typical DIY/crafty looks, but interesting. Given the right fabrics these would all look great.
I used to upcycle a lot but with my full time job I am lucky to get in any sewing time at all, and have been preferring pattern work as of late. This looks like a fab book!
Yes! this book looks like my kinda thing. I love a refashion. Here’s my upside down coat which I have worn to death.
and one more, a skirt made into a top Fingers crossed.
and here’s a skirt made into a necklace
What a super looking book! I’d love to be entered for the giveaway. My last recycling effort was this one.
I used to upcycle things a lot when I was very poor…now I prefer to sew new things. But this book still looks great!
Man you find some interesting and cool things. Thanks TJ though I’m not entereing the giveaway its just good to browse through coffee/wine in hand
)
Ooo, this was one of the other books that tempted me when I visited Kinokuniya in LA Little Tokyo! I love the T-shirt restylings. Unfortunately the second half the book – the men’s shirt restyling weren’t really up my alley, so I didn’t get this book in the end. Amazing how you can turn a plain old T-shirt / sweat-shirt into such cool clothing. I suppose the right posing attitude and stick insect physique don’t hurt either!
Are you going to make any of these?
I actually got it for the shirt re-stylings-there’s some pretty cool stuff there (it’s just not shown in the best fabric) because Carl had so many too small shirts to get rid off. They I realised they were perfectly usable as is and gave them to the charity shop-I don’t sew (or wear) much woven stuff so I couldn’t justify chopping up stuff that was still usable..
girl, you know how to find interesting stuff. ;o))
I don’t have a link to provide but I wanted to chime in and say I think this is a great idea! It’s such a shame to think of how many clothes we throw away that could be turned into something else. Thank go for hosting this giveaway