This was a swell week to be a thrifty fashionista! :)
LOOK at these lovelies I scored!
So chic!
Aren’t those vintage leather pumps ($3) just to die for?!?! And they were made in Spain…SPAIN (this seems ridiculously cool and exotic to me for some reason)!!!!
That black leather belt ($1) is pretty sweet too. Such a unique piece.
And that big brooch was a steal at fifty cents! :)
I couldn’t resist pairing my new pumps and belt with my favorite new $1 frock! :)
…and it has POCKETS!!!
So happy these were my size! :)
Not bad for a $5 outfit, eh?
Cheers!
So…I showed you how I refashed that LBD for Good Morning America yesterday, but what about that purple dress on the right?
How’d I do it?
I mean, how do you go from this…
Harumph.
…to this?
Huzzah!
This was a tricky one, folks! First, I dyed the original top to get rid of that blah faded brown and white…
A fun color combo!
It’s all in the mix!
…then I noticed all these little holes on the sides. :/
Why?!?!!!!
This is where all my photographic evidence falls off, you guys.
I can explain! It was about 2am when I was working on this, and I had to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before going in to work the next day then dashing off to catch my flight!
Still…I’m sorry. :/
The best way I know how to explain what I did was:
1. I removed that fake underlayer
2. I took the whole thing in from the sides.
3. I took it in again from the back to raise the neck line a smidge
4. I added the fabric from the sides to the bottom of the dress, patching some holes and re stitching around others (cutting off the parts with holes and stitching the good bits back together, then stitching THAT to the bottom).
5. I gave this craziness a new hem.
6. Then I took the sleeves up a lil.
And that’s what brought us to this!
Ta-Da!
My new purple frock had a blast for my last day in NYC! Erin and I checked out the MoMA, had a fantastic lunch at Grammercy Tavern (an entire page of their menu is dedicated to ciders!), and had a lovely time exploring the city before we caught our flight back home.
Lookie! We found a tasty frozen sangria stand!
Times Square Selfie!
What a fun trip! :)
Cheers!
Thanks so much to everyone who watched my Good Morning America segment! :)
If you missed it, you can catch it riiiiight here!
ABC News | ABC Sports News
OH MY GOD! MY VOICE IS TERRIBLE! I don’t know why any of my friends ever listen to me. ;’(
Weirdo voice aside, I had SUCH an awesome time! The staff at GMA was just wonderful, and I had a blast sewing in Central Park. Ginger Zee is just as nice as she seems on TV, and I loved seeing her in one my refashions. Getting to catch a Zedd concert while I worked wasn’t too shabs either! :)
The dress I wore for the show was this refashion, and I even managed to wear heels without falling! Huzzah!
But how did I refashion those two pieces for the show? Hmmmmnnn? Just in case my two minute time allotment wasn’t enough to explain this, I’ll break ‘em down for ya. :)
Let’s start with that black long-sleeved blouse.
So sparkly!
I didn’t choose this one, folks. You know that bit of my segment where Mara Schiavocampo and I are digging through the bins at the Goodwill Clearance Center? That was shot right before Mara and the producer had to rush back to the airport to catch their flight back to NYC. This meant my normal hours-long dig session was reduced to about five minutes. Mara liked the look of this one, and even though I had no clue what I was going to do to refash it in time for the show, I went along with it. Because I’m not going to argue with a lady who needs to catch her flight!
I’m really glad I did, as this is one of my favorite refashions to date! It’s also really simple!
First, I chopped off those sleeves.
Buh. Bye.
Then, I put it on my dress form, pulling the neck hole under the arms and pinning the sides to fit, like so:
See?
Each side went through my machine…
Whirrrrrrr!
…and then I trimmed off the extra fabric.
Almost done!
I put my new dress on my dress form inside-out and pinned one of the sleeves over the shoulder. This is what really makes this dress chic!
Wide part to the front.
Small part to the back!
I stitched each of these pinned parts down, and a sexy cocktail dress was born! There was no need to add a new hem or hem the top, as I was using what was already there!
Tres chic!
Thanks for all your help, Erin! :)
This frock was so cute, I couldn’t resist wearing it that evening for a night on the town with two of my best buds!
All this attention has clearly gone to my head!
I think my dress is similar to this one worn by Heidi Klum…in a Dr. Scholl’s ad.
…except hers isn’t sparkly!
My friend Heather made the trip down from Philly to hang out with me and Erin in the big city! :)
Reunited!
As we lounged at a swanky rooftop bar, I couldn’t help but feel really lucky to have had such a special day, and to have shared it with such wonderful friends. :)
Lucky and blurry!
Thanks to everyone who tuned in. I think we really are changing the way the world thinks about fashion. And I couldn’t be happier. :)
Cheers!
