What to Look For? 6; Ideas for finding the best bargains; checking out styles, fabrics, possibilities, colours, and practicalities. What not to throw away. How to identify the best quality, shapes, and fabrics for you. How to identify natural fabrics - silks, linens, and wools. How to look beyond the fabric and identify good shapes and patterns that you can copy. Make the most of size - buy large-size clothes with lots of fabric to cut down and re-make into new for you.; Changing Colour 20; What to do when the colour doesn't suit you... Playing with colour - what you can dye and what you can't. Washing machine dyeing. Hand-dyed vests and trims. Dyeing trims and buttons. Machine-dyed cotton pjs with trims. Dyeing to be decorative. Dip-dyeing a skirt. Machine-dyed cotton shirt with overstitched embroidery. Dyed jumper with trim variations. Over-size jumper felted down. Look out for the stitching not taking the dye and use this to make a design feature. Rectifying a colour you don't like.; Changing Decoration 40; What to do when the item is nice but boring... Embellishing with embroidery, beads, sequins, and ribbons. Different kinds of decoration, what to look for, and where to get it. Embroidered cardigans with beads and sequins. Embroidered denim - jeans and jacket. Embroidered evening vest. Different stitches and applique techniques. Beading - taking simple items and patterns and making them special. Beading net for shoes and scarves. Beading a bag. Buttons - making your own and adding them to a garment. Buttons as a design feature. Shop-bought trims for quick and easy fixes.; Changing Form 60; What to do when you love the fabric but not the item... Coats, skirts, etc transformed into belts and bags, and scarves into camisole tops. Making a scarf from an oversize item. Making a suede bag from an old-fashioned leather skirt or jacket. Felting an oversize jumper to make a cardigan, jacket, or bolero. Turning a scarf into a camisole top. Taking apart a necklace to combine and re-string anew. Cutting out a floral to use as an applique. Using a scarf as a belt with a vintage buckle. How to make patterns from garments. Tracing them off without cutting it up. Unpicking or cutting up the seams to make a fabric pattern.; Changing Shape 82; What to do when the garment is great but doesn't suit you... Going up and Coming down: Cutting off trousers to make capri pants or shorts. Cutting down a skirt to make it shorter. Adding to a skirt to make it longer with bands and ruffles. Adding shoulder tucks to a baggy blouse to make it more fitted. How to make a long sleeve blouse short-sleeved. How to turn a round neck into a v-neck.; Back to Basics 108; Practical dyeing. Basic stitching - seaming, cutting seams, overstitching, and hemming. Basic embroidery - french knots, running stitches etc. Basic alterations - lengthening and shortening, unpicking seams, darning, patching.; Endmatter & Index.
