Recycling Fashion

Fashion trends change every season, and it’s hard to keep up with a limited paycheck. Unlike A-list celebrities who can afford to purchase new items on a weekly basis, we normal taxpayers have to work with our existing wardrobe or wait until we’ve saved enough money to splurge.

Help is on the way! Go through your closet and gather all your old tops, last season’s pieces, and even extremely outdated clothes and accessories you want to get rid off. Channel your inner seamstress and rework your old wardrobe.

The Old Shirt - Hot Vintage Tee
We’re talking about the company t-shirt, the collared sports shirt you wore in high school, and those outdated tees you bought at bazaars seasons ago. All you need is a pair of scissors and a sewing machine.

Start by laying the shirt flat on a table. Using a chalk or pencil, outline the inner armholes and neckline, depending on what length and style you’d like to transform the shirt into. You can opt for ¼ sleeves, sleeveless, boat-neck, v-neck, or a plunging neckline. Look at this season’s trendy tops for inspiration. When you’re satisfied with your outline design, start cutting off the fabric, carefully following the lines. Then hem the ends using a sewing machine or leave it loose and flimsy for that vintage effect.

Scrap Accessories - Unique Beadwork
Gather all your broken accessories and outdated earrings. Dump all the broken and useless parts in the garbage, but collect all the beads, trimmings, ribbons, and sequins that are in good condition.

You now have a variety of beads and trimmings to sew onto your plain bags and shirts. Using a thread and needle or your good old glue gun, apply unique designs on your plain tops, dresses and bags.

For a simple design, try outlining the skirt hems with beads. Tie scrap ribbons and ropes on the bag handles to create one-of-a-kind bag charms. Glue old appliqués onto your totes and tops. The possibilities are endless!

Take your designs up a notch by creating unique mixes and matches. Browse through this season’s fashion magazines for ideas. You’ll have a unique fashion item in no time.

Old Jeans - Denim Bag
Whether it’s the big pair of jeans you had when you were heavier, the outdated style you will never use again, or that fashion faux you committed seasons ago, your old denim jeans may be transformed into a rockin’ new bag.

Start by laying the jeans flat on a table. Cut off the legs starting from the crotch area. You now have what looks like a skirt. Turn the skirt inside out and stitch the hemline tightly. Flip the skirt until both edges are triangularly shaped (see illustration). Sew the triangular edges. Turn the sewed skirt outside in. You now have your basic bag.

Using the legs you cut out earlier, you can now make the bag’s handles. Cut out two straps of denim depending on the length and width of your choice. You don’t have to hem or sew the straps. Just twist it around like a rope for a rugged effect. You may even braid three strips of denim for each strap. Tie the straps (or braids) into the belt loop areas of the bag. Your rockstar-inspired bag is ready!

Sizing Up

According to expert bra fitter Susan Nethero, 85 percent of women are wearing the wrong bra size. “Most women wear their bras too big; they think ‘comfortable’ means ‘loose.’ What they actually need is a firmer band to keep the bra level across the front and back,” she said.

Your bust size will change as you go through different stages in life—weight fluctuations, pregnancy, and even aging. According to Avon Intimate Apparels, the average woman will wear six different bra sizes throughout her life.

How can you tell if you’re wearing the wrong bra size? Do you:

• Constantly adjust your bra on the front, back, or sides?
• Feel like your bust is overflowing or spilling out of your cups?
• Feel the underwire pinching your skin?

If you said yes to one or more of these questions, then YES, you are wearing the wrong bra size. It’s time to improve your posture and figure by sizing up. Avon shows us how.

1. While wearing your existing bra, stand straight and breathe normally. Measure yourself around the rib cage, right below your bust line.

2. If the measurement is an even number, add four inches. If the measurement is an odd number, add five inches. The resulting number is your BODY SIZE. (ex. If you measure 34”, add 4”, thus getting a body size of 38. If you measure 31”, add 5”, thus getting a body size of 36.)

3. Place the tape measure over the fullest part of your bust (usually where the nipple is). Get the difference between this measurement and your body size. The resulting number is your BUST SIZE.

4. Determine your CUP SIZE by referring to the chart below:

5. Your body size plus your cup size equals your BRA SIZE. For example, if your body size is 34 and your bust size is 33, your bust measures one inch smaller than your body size. Hence, your bra size is 34A for adults and 34B for teens.

Bra Size Chart (Adults)

Bra Size Chart (Teens)

Fashion Emergency Kit

Remember that time you were wearing the perfect dress and it suddenly ripped? Do you have a favorite crisp blouse that lost a button right before your presentation? Ever had a Cinderella moment where your shoe slipped off your foot at a party?

Fashion mishaps can happen to anyone, even to the hottest supermodels and celebrities. Like Hollywood’s top stylists, the secret to staying fashionably poise is keeping the right fashion emergency tools.

1. Sewing Kit
The most basic fashion necessity of all, the sewing kit is every fashionista’s best friend. Fabric tears, disastrous moth-eaten fabrics, and other clothing emergencies will be easy to remedy. Just make sure you still remember those sewing lessons you had in your 5th grade home economics class.

Where to get it: Available in almost all department stores, drug stores, groceries, and beauty stores nationwide.

2. Lint Remover
Who wants to see unsightly pet fur, falling hair, laundry lint, and gasp, even dandruff on your fabulous dark dress? Just roll it on the messy area and the unwanted lint will cling to the lint remover. If you don’t have a lint roller, get a long piece of masking tape and use it to take the lint out of your clothes. It can be messy, so you’re better off with a lint roller.

Where to get it: Try Rustan’s, Landmark, Robinson’s, Watson’s and SM Department Stores.

3. Stain Remover
You never know if that spaghetti sauce will splatter on your white shirt in the middle of your dinner date. Have a stain remover handy in your purse or car. Stain removers usually work well with food stains, although they aren’t widely available in the Philippines. If you can’t order them online, try a pack of baby wipes.

Where to get it: Handy stain removers such as Tide To Go is available only in countries such as the U.S., so have a relative buy one for you. Wipes, on the other hand, are available in all groceries, drug stores, and department stores.

4. Party Feet
Dr. Scholl’s latest product line has women all over the world grinning. Party Feet takes care of common shoe problems such as killer blisters, slippery shoes, and sore spots. Choose from Party Feet’s array of medically tested foot products for women who can’t get enough of stilettos.

Where to get it: Dr. Scholl’s Party feet is available at PCX and leading department stores.

5. Foot Petals
Some shoes may look fabulous on the outside, but excruciatingly painful once you put them on. Tame your shoes from hell with Foot Petals, a line of pain-relieving products that aid slippery soles, painful ankles, and uncomfortable shoe straps.

Where to get it: Foot Petals is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, Schu, Charles & Keith, Selected Watsons Outlets, and PCX.

6. Hollywood Fashion Tape
Ever wondered why celebrities’ outfits look flawless? It’s thanks to these double-sided strips. Place them in the gaps of your blouse to prevent peek-a-boos or use them to keep spaghetti straps from slipping off your shoulders. You may also use the tapes to secure revealing necklines, fix hems, hold up strapless tops, hide bra straps, and secure shoe straps. Cheap, double-adhesive tapes may do the same job, but they’re not as hypoallergenic and fabric friendly as Hollywood Fashion Tape.

Where to get it: Hollywood Fashion Tape is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, PCX Power Plant, Velvet Rose, and Chocolate Clothing Company.

7. Tag Tamers
If those uncomfortable or itchy labels at the back of your shirt or top are starting to get on your nerves, cover them with these hypoallergenic and fabric-friendly tag covers. You may also use them to prevent those annoying shirt tags from popping out of your back.

Where to get it: Hollywood Tag Tamers is available at Beauty Bar, Rustans Essences, PCX Power Plant, Velvet Rose, and Chocolate Clothing Company.

8. Safety Pins
You basic sewing kit may have a few small safety pins already, but you need more! Purchase safety pins in different sizes because you never know how big or small your fashion emergency is.

Where to get it: sari-sari stores, drug stores, department stores, etc.