diy punk

I have expensive jeans on which the zip/fly construction isn't right.

I've had to resew hems on tshirts after a few weeks.

I've bought shirts that the strip of fabric round the neckhole is was all streched out and I had to cut it off to make it look good.

I have a vest that one shoulder strap is like 1cm narrower than the other shoulder strap.

Notice the shoddy construction of these trousers I was altering in my last post. The tartan fabric should make it really easy to cut, fold, and sew in straight lines but these are squint all over and I have a tartan skirt that is just as bad. No disrespect to the exploited underpaid sweatshop workers who made them, my point is that if you want to make clothes you do not have to be perfect to make something that is not only wearable but also looks good.

Quick and easy alteration!

I got these pyjamas without trying them on first stupidly thinking they would be big enough and ended up being sliced in half by the too tight elastic in the waistband (weird bc the rest of it fit me fine but it just goes to show that sizes are not even standard across the same shop let alone different shops)

Thankfully it's really easy fix this by removing a section of the elastic. The technique will vary slightly depending on the construction of the waistband and whether or not there is a drawstring but should be basically like this.

You will need:

the offending garmant with elasticated waistband

needle and thread

scissors

seam ripper (optional)

First you need to open up the seam from the centre of the front of the trousers preferably using a seam ripper but it would be doable using a pair of small scissors (like nail scissors). Try and open the seam the same amount on each side from the middle. How far to go depends on how much elastic needs to be removed so use your own judgement.

It can be daunting ripping into seams and taking clothing apart but it's actually a great way to learn about how they are made. Pay attention to how the waistband is constructed. For example I had two lines of stitching to unpick here - one holding the seam closed and another connecting the fabric to the elastic.

Basically you want to completely seperate the elastic from the fabric like this:

Next we need to cut out a section of the elastic. Start off with a small section as you can always remove more if it's still too tight but it would be far harder and very tedious to reattach it if you cut too much off. Cut a section out from roughly the centre of the front of the waistband (technically you could do it at any point in the waistband but it will probably be comfiest at the front)

At this point try them on and see how the fit is. If it's still too tight unpick the seams further and cut off a little more elastic on each side.

When you're happy with the fit it's time to sew everything back together again. Start by anchoring the ends of the elastic to the fabric by sewing down the edges of the elastic through both sides of the fabric. I did backstitch to make it extra strong but a couple of lines of simple running stitch should do the job. Use your fingers to feel where the end of the elastic is. Do this on both ends of the elastic.

All that's left now is to sew up the seam again. It will be much longer than when you started bc the gathered material will now be lying flat giving you the extra length. Put the seam back together folding along the existing presses. You can also pin it if you like but I didn't bother. Use whatever stitch you like, it's not as important that it's super strong this time.

And you're done! Be comfortable in your now not too tight waistband and feel the power of the knowledge of waistband construction you now have!

Punk isn't just about cool clothes so here's some tips for cleaning that opt out of capitalism's idea that you need 600 different products that are often harmful to the environment to properly clean and will also save you a load of money.

I have ammassed these tips over years of working jobs that were cleaning or glorified cleaning, being poor, having certain requirements that limit what i can buy from the shops including sensetivity to the sorts of fragrances often in cleaning products, being haunted by the ghosts of old ladies who have very specific ideas about cleaning.

The only cleaning products i have in my house are baking soda, washing soda, bar soap, white/distilled vinegar, 2 kinds of washing up liquid (one milder one for the dishes that's better for the environment and i can buy refills for and another for cleaning other stuff), and bleach. I never buy plastic sponges, cloths, cleaning wipes, etc. The only disposable thing I use is kitchen roll/paper towels. I have one seldom used long plastic dish brush for bottles and I buy metal scourers bc I use stainless steel pans not non stick, plus the usual (cotton string not microfibre) mop, bucket, brushes, etc. I usually have a pair of rubber gloves but again they're seldom used for anythign other than hair dye.

Listen to me.....

Microfibre cleaning cloths are bullshit.

They're not absorbant, they're plastic, they're a scam (i have strong feelings about this lol). I use cotton towelling cloths for almost all cleaning. Dishes, wiping surfaces, spillages, cleaning the bath, dusting, etc. Currently I use old face cloths that were too rough for washing skin but in the past i have literally just torn up scabby old towels, no need to even hem them or anything. You can wash and reuse them probably thousands of times including a boil wash, it doesn't matter if there are stains that don't come out, it's not dirt, it's just discolouration, a couple of mine have green and blue patches from wiping up spilled paint. But if it bothers you that much you can soak them in bleach.

Here's a great recipe:

DIY washing powder for clothes

i literally never use shop bought detergent bc this works so much better, is much cheaper, and the washing machine doesn't need cleaned nearly so often. it is also GREAT if you don't like the overpowering scents that are usually in shop bought ones.

you will need:

1 part bicarbonate of soda/baking soda

1 part washing soda

1 part grated bar soap

simply grate your soap and mix with the other ingredients. I usually mix 1 cup of each at a time and it lasts a couple of months but any amount is fine as long as it's more or less the same amount of each ingredient.

the best soap ive used is pure olive oil soap that costs like £4 for a huge block but ive also used normal cheap ass hand/body soap and it worked fine too.

Bleach

Bleach is great because you can use it for multiple things and while it has a smell I personally do not find it cloying and overwhelming like other anti bactirial products.

I use it whenever I want to kill germs (like the toilet) but it can be used to whiten things too like white shirts that have gone a bit yellow under the arms, sheets, towels, etc. Just mix with some water in a bucket and soak the fabric until it's nice and white again.

If you have tiles in your house and the grout between them is getting a bit stained pour a little bleach on an old toothbrush and give it a scrub. It works great.

You can also use it to make cool designs on dark coloured clothing (check out my bleach tie dye post here)

Baking soda is fucking brilliantly versatile

your grandma probably knows this but capitalism would rather you buy 12 products that do one thing than one product that does 12 things so it's trying to make us forget. its non toxic, it's cheap, it's mildly abraisive, here are a few things that I use it for.

the above recipe for washing powder

pour some down a smelly/blocked drain with some white vinegar, let it sit until it stops fizzing, then empty a kettle of boiling water down after it. (any vinegar works really but i don't like cooking with the same kind I use for cleaning and distilled white vinegar is the traditional one)

mix into a paste with a little water and use to scrub tea and coffee stains out of mugs

mix into a paste with a drop of washing up liquid for a more powerful cleaning paste

mix with vinegar to clean the hob and the oven, it's useful to fill a spray bottle with the vinegar. (scrubbing with a metal scourer also helps, i've never managed to scratch my cooker doing this)

sprinkle on liquid, especially smelly liquid, to absorb it then simply vacuum it up when it's dried.

the box usually has a few different ways to use it too.

Washing up liquid/dish soap can be used for so much more than dishes

it's basically liquid soap that is particularly good at breaking down fat/oil/grease. It's also a mild disinfectant. As I said I have one kind I use every day for the actual dishes but I keep another bottle of bog standard stuff, not even fairy liquid just the cheap lidl version, for general cleaning.

Ever spent ages trying and failing to scrub the bath or basin clean with dedicated bathroom sprays?? A lot of the dirt that comes off our bodies and hair when we wash is oily, and if like me you use solid bar soap and shampoo there's even more oil in that. So washing up liquid works really really well to break that down. So well I was angry when I first tried it bc I had spent so long trying to clean the bathroom with horrible sprays that don't work properly. Just squirt a bit on a damp cloth and wipe until it's clean then rinse off with water. (it's usually easier to check if something is clean by feel rather than sight, a clean bath will feel 'squeaky' under your fingers, this is where the expression squeaky clean comes from!)

I also use it for the kitchen floor, mix with water, spread it over the floor, leave it to soak a bit, then clean up. I usually just mop but something the old lady ghosts are right about is that sometimes it's good to get down on your knees with a stiff bristled brush and give it a good old scrub.

For cleaning the windows or glass shower doors, all you need is washing up liquid and water (think about it, you use it to clean drinking glasses and it works great). Another thing the ghosts are right about is that newspaper is the absolute best thing for getting the streaks off glass surfaces, just mind the ink will come off on your hands so watch what you touch with them. Again, that's one less plastic bottle of spray to buy.

In fact there aren't many things in your house you can't clean with some hot soapy water and a cloth.

You will need:

cotton shirt (any colour should work other than white)

strong string

normal ass household bleach

first scrunch/fold your shirt in whatever way takes your fancy and tie string tightly round it to hold it in place. I folded my shirt into a strip then tied string down the length, rolled it up and put more string round it but try anything you want. be creative, you can even tie marbles into the fabric to create different effects.

try and picture how it will turn out when it's dyed but enjoy the fact you won't know what it will look likew until it's done. (mine ended up nothing like what i pictured)

the tighter you fold/tie the less the bleach will seep in those areas which will create the pattern!

wet the shirt (or don't!! who knows how it will turn out!) then pour straight undiluted bleach all over it. rub it in a little with your fingers for even coverage. I poured on more bleahc on mine after a bit but use your instincts to judge.

wait a while, keep checking to see the effect and when it's lightened as much as you want rinse the shirt off a bit and cut off the string. this black shirt turned a lovely orange colour where the bleach was.

give it a proper wash and its all done!

you could easily pay £30 for a similar shirt but it's so easy to make one thats totally unique and uses stuff thats cheap and you've probably already got in your house. plus there's no issue with dyes running in the wash because it's just bleach!

Before:

After:

You will need:

pair of old trousers

scissors

needle and thread

(optional) pins

(optional) additional fabric for strap if not using offcuts

First cut the bottoms off your trousers above where the seams join at the crotch.

Next turn inside out and pin along the open edge. Or don't, it should be pretty easy to sew up without pinning.

Then sew shut the gap along the bottom. Do two lines of stitching if you're worried about it not being strong enough (but it will probably be fine). There you have your bag!

All that's left to do is the strap. Cut strips of the fabric you cut off the legs of the trousers and use lengths of this. (I used shorts for my bag so I made the strap from the legs of some cutoff shorts I made from onother pair of jeans.)

For a no sew option cut out and tie together the strong inside seams from the legs to make a sturdy strap.

What I did was cut strips double the width I wanted the strap to be then sewed along the edge and, using a safety pin, turned the resulting tube inside out so the seam was on the inside (see this post for detailed istructios on how to do this)

You could do a long shoulder strap or a shorter one depending on how you want to carry your bag. Try out different lengths to decide what you want to do.

To attach the strap you could tie the ends to the belt loops, cut holes in the waistband and tie it through them, or sew them down.

And you're done! this makes a very cool and surprisingly roomy bag with ready made pockets for all your things. You can even accesorise it with a belt, attach keyrings to the belt loops, sew on patches, attach studs or badges, the possibilities are endless.

you will need:

tshirt

measuring tape

chalk

scissors

start by measuring yourself. if you want the shirt to end up more tightly fitted use your waist measurement, for a looser fit use your hip or bust measurement. measure the full way round and make sure the measuring tape is going straight across your back. half this measurement (eg for 120cm waist you want 60cm).

lay your shirt out on a flat surface (I already chopped a couple of inches off the collar of this shirt its just a bog standard tshirt) and measure the width.

next subtract your halved body measurement from the width of the shirt, then half the remainder again. (if your shirt is 70cm and waist 60cm that would be 70-60=10, half of 10 is 5).

measure in this amount (eg 5cm) from both sides of your shirt and draw a line vertically from the bottom hem this amount from the edge. my shirt was not very big so I didn't have to chop much off but I have done this successfully with gigantic shirts in the past.

you'll probably want to chop off the ends of the sleeves too. I just cut a straight line basically following the line I drew then used the offcut of one sleeve as a template to make sure the other side was basically even. feel free to experiment with the angle especially if your shirt is huge, you could even cut off the sleeve entirely!

next use the point of your scissors to poke holes in both layers of fabric every few inches from the bottom hem to the base of the sleeve on both sides of the shirt. so you end up with something like this! put as many or as few holes as you like, the less holes, the bigger the gaps will be, just like laces in shoes.

for the lacing, it works really well if you cut thin strips of the fabric cut off the sides of your shirt and stretch them out to make them longer but since I didn't have much to cut off mine I used an old pair of shoelaces I had lying round. make sure your lacing is much more than double the length of the shirt. if using the offcuts of your shirt tie two strips together so the knot will be positioned at the top under your arm when you lace it.

start at the top and lace it up just like a shoe! use your finger to enlarge the holes if need be. tie a knot when you get to the bottom. repeat for the other side.

because I didn't take my own advice, my laces weren't long enough to get all the way to the bottom of the shirt so I chopped off the bottom and made mine into a crop top instead.

the raw hems will naturally roll themselves up so don't worry about them.

You will need:

hoodie

non stretch cotton fabric

hand sewing needle and thread (machine optional but not required)

pins

chalk

scissors

measuring tape and/or ruler

lay out the fabric and decide how wide you want your stripes to be. for each stripe you will need double the width you want plus a little more for seam allowance. my stripes ended up about 1.5cm wide so my fabric strips were just over 3cm. also measure the sleeve length of your hoodie and make sure your fabric is longer than this.

you can use any fabric that doesn't stretch but it's worth going into a fabric shop if you have one locally so you can see/feel what you're buying. they often have really cheap discount cottons in all sorts of colours and patterns.

measure your desired width and use a ruler and chalk to draw a line. any old chalk works, depending on fabric colour you could use charcoal, pencil, anything that will wash out really.

cut the first strip along the line and use it as a template to mark out 5 more strips then cut these too (books make great weights to hold your fabric in place while cutting)

next, fold each strip in half lengthways making sure the right side of the fabric (the side you want to show) is on the inside. pin along the whole strip to hold in place.

then iron along the strips to press the fold in place (it's really worth doing this because otherwise it's much harder to get the lines straight trust me I struggled along for too long not pressing my seams before I realised how much easier it is if you iron them).

next it's time to start sewing! I used my machine for this but you can absolutely do it by hand. sew along the edge of each strip keeping in mind how wide you want your stripes to be so you don't sew too close to the folded edge.

now you have your 6 stripes but they are inside out. if required trim your seam allowance as small as you can then attach a safety pin to the end of the strip and tuck it down through the hole, then push the fabric tube over the pin and pull it through to the other end. this part is a little tricky and hard to explain but it makes more sense when you actually do it.

so you have your 6 stripes turned the right way out but they look a mess so you need to get the iron out again and press them. this time try and get the seam in the centre of one side which will be the back of your stripes.

time to attach the stripes to your hoodie sleeves. pin them down then try it on to check they're in the correct position and adjust if needed. if you want you can measure the gaps to help get them evenly spaced but I just did mine by eye. they don't need to be perfect just do your best, it won't be noticable if they aren't completely evenly spaced the entire way down.

next sew the stripes down. I chose to hand sew mine. just did a simple stitch up and down each edge.

pin the stripes down on the opposite sleeve. I lined up the shoulder seams on each side of my hoodie then lined the stripes up with the first side to get them even. then sew them down same as the first sleeve.

to finish the ends, trim into a little point, tuck under the end of the stripe, and sew down.

and you're done! enjoy being the coolest person on the planet and ripping off the design of an incredibly harmful corporation!