Fabrickind Cosplay and Cosplay Education

Did you mean this picture?

(Image source) [ID: side view of blue denim shorts with a dark blue floral fabric insert at the side seams.]

How to upsize a pair of pants:

Written instructions:

These shorts were upsized by the owner of the Blue Corduroy blog, who explains how you can upsize your own pants in this upsizing tutorial.

This technique is quite simple: measure out how much extra fabric you need (+seam allowance), and cut corresponding strips of a fabric with a similar fibre and weight as your pants. Open up the side seams of your trousers, insert the strips you've cut, then finish up your seams and you're done.

(Image source) [ID: a pair of cut-off blue denim shorts with opened-up side seams. A seam ripper and a pile of loose threads lie beside the shorts.]

(Image source) [ID: a pair of cut-off blue denim shorts with opened-up side seams. A strip of dark blue floral fabric has been sewn onto one of the opened seams. A second strip lies besides the pants, along with a pair of scissors.]

This tutorial shows you how to do this on a pair of shorts, but this works on full-length pants and even skirts as well.

Video tutorial:

If you prefer video tutorials, Confessions of a Refashionista also has a video on this:

Some general notes:

If your insert fabric is too thin to match your trousers' fabric, try using two layers instead of one like the video above demonstrates.

For extra comfort, use strips twice as wide as the width you need to add and size them down again by adding shirring (or some other type of elastic insert). Do this at the waistband level to get a fitted waist and flared legs, or do this across the strip's entire length to get a pair of fitted trousers with a shirred panel. This technique is also great if your size fluctuates a lot because the elastic allows the pants to expand and shrink along with your body.

The image below (by Suzy Bee Sews) shows what this looks like on a dress, but the principle's the same for pants.

(Image source) [ID: close-up of a shirred side panel in a blue dress with light blue flowers printed on the fabric.]

Visible mending is a way to fix clothes with holes in a decorative way. Instead of trying to make the mend invisible as possible, it can be fun and creative to hi light the tears and holes with stitching that adds to the garment. I think this method is super cool to repair clothes you may really want to keep but also make more beautiful.

There are many techniques to mending clothes and here are some popular techniques that will help you save your clothes and also reduce your consumption of fast-fashon!

darning

The embroidery technique used to repair holes in fabric by using running stitches and thread woven in-between those stitches to repair a hole. If you’re interested in employing this stitch, check out this awesome darning tutorial by Evelyn Wood!

sashiko

This type of traditional Japanese mending practice is used to reinforce the strength of fabric as well as decorate. It is a great solution for mending holes with patches and well to reinforce thinning fabric! For learning the basics of Sashiko there is a wonderful beginners tutorial by Benzie Design.

patches

Patches are very versatile when used for repairing clothes. You can sew it over a hole in your fabric or you can also so the patch in the inside to have it peek out. There is a great tutorial for custom DIY patches by wastelesscrafts and Creating with misp has a tutorial on mending with a peek-through patch. 

when looking for your birthday, make sure to read the small grey italicized number, not the big orange numbers ; january 14, for example, is on the 25th day of the month of nivôse.

there are three months for each season ; if you're on mobile, you may need to scroll sideways to see the third one.

some birthdays in september are in a special section. that is because the first day of the year is september 22nd, and the last few days of the year before that are special holidays. see :

https://wheelofnames.com/kch-gkt

this is a really really cool idea! Thanks!!!

You can't do this for a week!

Submitted for classification by @fabrickind

"I hope he hasn't been submitted yet, but Jimothy, the new Seattle cryptid (a raccoon with short spine syndrome)"

i’m trying to hand dye some white fabric with striping to replicate the cats musical production costumes, but i’m having trouble with the dye staining and making the whole white base look dingy/beige when i rinse it out before washing. it also didn’t take as vividly as i wanted it to and the whole thing is really low-contrast and washed out looking. i used undiluted rit dye (not for synthetics, which could be the vividness problem) on 85% nylon 15% spandex fabric, applied directly in stripes with a fine tip bottle. the dye sat on the fabric drying for about 24 hrs before ironing to help heat set the dye and then thoroughly rinsing out and washing in cold water.

So if I am understanding correctly, you are putting dye in specific areas and trying to wash it off while keeping the rest of the fabric from getting dye on it, correct?

There's a few ways of doing this, but it will likely require getting more dye materials, since Rit likely isn't going to cut it. I also wouldn't recommend the Rit synthetic dye for this, since that needs to be pretty much boiled in order to take.

Look into two things: batik and silk painting. These are different techniques that will achieve something similar, and it just depends on what you are able to do. You will want to use acid dyes, regardless. These will take a lot stronger on nylon than regular Rit.

Silk painting usually requires stretching out the fabric on some type of frame (just enough for it to be taught, not enough to stretch the spandex) and then using a thickened dye placed exactly where you want it and steam to set the dye.

Batik goes about the same problem from the opposite direction, where instead of keeping the dye in one place, it uses a resist to keep the dye off of some places. You would usually do an immersion dye bath with this. Some batik resists will crack and let a bit of dye through, creating a distinctive "crackle" effect (I've heard of people using school glue as a more flexible resist though?), and that might not be the look you want, but it's also a bit lower barrier to entry than silk painting.

You can also sort of combine the two and use a resist just outside the areas you want to keep white, and then use a thickened acid dye inside, being careful to not let it seep past the resist, but that would require some experimentation.

I recommend looking through Dharma Trading Company's website for information and ideas: https://www.dharmatrading.com/blogs/a

(you can also contact them for better advice than what I can give!)

Dye na Flow. I think you want Dye na Flow. You can see if you can thicken it and paint it on, or see if you can use a resist outline, or you can just freehand it.

This is a paint that acts like a dye, in that the fabric has the same hand afterwards. The color is slightly translucent, but it should have the same color as in the bottle without having to worry about the fabric type fully taking the dye (as in, what you see when you apply it is what you get once you set it).

It needs to be heat set, but that shouldn't be an issue.