What direction shall I go in?

It was sort of like having Writer’s Block…only Refashioner’s Block!  I eventually decided to stop thinking about it and just start doing.  Any step forward was probably in the right direction!  :)

First, I took it in!

Pinning the sides!

Follow the Pinned Path!

I cut off the extra fabric with my pinking shears (This is to keep the sides from fraying, btw).

I tried it on, and noticed a BIG problem!

How’d I miss THAT?!?!!!

Luckily, this was a quick fix!

Just re-stitch the seam! :)

I decided to make this dress into a top for the day.  I chopped it off, and gave it a nice new hem!

Pin & Stitch!

My new top is light & flowy!  I loves!  :)

I can’t decide if this pose looks cute, or if I just look like I need to pee. :/

This seat is taken. ;)

Cheers!

So very blah!

…is what wonderful blank slates they are!  You can really do just about anything with them!  :)

I decided to go for a quick, but dramatic no-sew refashion for this one!

First, I trimmed off that bottom hem to make my sash.

Snippage!

Then, I folded the dress in half and made a big asymmetrical cut!

Do you see where this is going? :)

Those sleeves needed a bit of a shortening, too!

Short ‘n Sweet!

And that’s it!  Now that dress is totally transformed!

Lovin’ the High/Low Hem!!! :)

I wore my dress to Finlay Park for a production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).  I was especially excited, as I was asked to review the show for Jasper Magazine and Onstage Columbia!  :)

There I was…poised with pen in hand, ready to take notes!

Let’s DO this! :)

Erin and I were really optimistic…

This play will be great! We just know it! :)

…and then it started to rain.  Hard.  :/

Oh Noooooo!!!! :/

So…the show was called off.  Such a bummer!  Luckily, I’ll be able to catch it/review it on what will hopefully be a bright & sunny Saturday!  Fingers crossed! I’ll be sure to post the link to my review when it’s released. :)

Cheers!

Blah Blah Beige! Yick!

Before I even started with the icktastic shape of this frock, I reached for a box of something fun!

Keepin’ it real with teal! :)

Into the washing machine it went!

So pretty!

I left the dress in its dye bath for about 30 minutes, then gave it a thorough rinse and dry.

Next, I chopped off that bottom hem, and put it aside.

Snnnnip!

I tossed it on my dress form for a bit of lipo!  I had to be careful, as this dress has no zipper or anything.  If I pinned it too tightly, I wouldn’t be able to get it off the dress form or my body!

Take it in!

Each side went through my machine!

Whirrrr!

I cut of the excess material with my pinking shears, then shortened my dress a bit.

Chop!

Pinned!

Hot. Hemming. Action.

I pressed everything, and now that drab blob of beige is now a lovely sea foamy frock!  :)

Barely recognizable! :)

Quite happy to be out of the beige! :)

Cheers!

Aaaand this is why you don’t wear a white bra with a black Tshirt.  :/

I put the skirt on my dress form, inside-out, and began taking it in.

Pinning!

Then, I ran it under the needle, like I do!  :)  This left me with a big scrap that I sewed into a long tube by sewing a line about 2″ from the original seam.

Whirrrrr!

I cut it out, turned it inside out, and closed up the one raw edge (the other edge was fine, as it was the original hem).

No raw edges here, folks! :)

Next, I took the tube, folded it, and stitched it to the front of what was about to be my new dress!

A Halter Top in Waiting!

I tossed on a sash and was ready to dash out the door!  :)

Look! I found my snood! :)

While out and about, I ran into a few fun people, like my beer snob pal, Alisha.   :)

Hi Alisha! :)

Cheers!

Bleh!

This dress suffers from the same condition of many other little dresses that find their way to thrift store clearance bins.  It’s faded and stained.

Stains! :(

Oh…and the red parts have bled into the white parts.  :/

See?

Now…this dress in unsellable is its current condition, all it needs is a little dye job to get it looking nice & new!  :)

I reached for a box of dye.

Hello, old friend! :)

Some of you guys might think my color choice is a bit odd.  I went with dark brown because Brown + Red = Maroon, which is one of my favorite colors!  :)  I also really wanted to make this dress a bit more muted.

I mixed up my dye…

Not the classiest vessel, I know!

…and added it to my washing machine!

Sudsy!

I left my dress in the dye bath for about 40 minutes, then gave it a rinse & dry!

Now that dress is looking new and fabu!  :)

Nicely done! :)

Cheers to being able to dye again! :)

I spent my evening just hanging out watching Woody Allen movies with the very sweet Pongo.  :)

Isn’t he handsome? :)

Yay for dye!

Cheers!  :)

When I woke up this morning, I felt quite off.  I knew I would.  This was supposed to be my wedding day that was called off months ago.  I plopped a pillow over my head to block out the obstinate sunlight, but knew I had to get up.  My slight hangover from a night of perhaps too much partying didn’t help my dour mood.  :/

I don’t regret the decision that was made to call everything off, but my thoughts kept retreating to a parallel dimension where we went along with everything, and how I imagined I would be feeling about it all.  It was all a bit too surreal to deal with before my morning coffee.  :/

The only reason I didn’t sleep in past 2 was that I had a friend visiting from out of town.  I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed, took a shower, and threw on today’s piece.

I look thrilled to be awake right now, don’t I?

This is a fairly dated dress, folks.  But look on the bright side…it actually fits me quite well!  All it needs is a few tweaks to take it into this century.  :)

First off, these dudes had to get outta there!

Buh Bye!

I took some of the awkward length away from the sleeves.

Chop!

Enthused by my choppage, I continued on to the skirt!

More Choppage!

Then, I pinned all of my raw edges under twice.

Pinned!

Of course, everything had to be stitched down, too!

Whirrr!

I pressed everything, and was all done!  :)

Taking a stroll by the river! :)

I was so happy to see Gary, one of my closest friends of 10 years from my college theatre days.  :)  We talked, hung out, and drank a good bit.  A very good bit.

No…this isn’t Gary. This is Jim Small! :)

Mmmmmmojito! :)

Much sushi was consumed as well.  :)

Raw Fish! So Delish! :)

Gary even helped me walk Pongo, the sweet pup I’m watching for the weekend.   :)

When I say “helped”, I mean “made fun of my lack of ability to control a medium-sized dog”. :)

One of the biggest things about being single that has irked me is my own inability to fix anything.  As some of you guys know, my washing machine just doesn’t get hot water, which means no dyeing of clothing.  :(

That was until today!   :) He also fixed a few other things around the house that had been driving me a bit batty.  Hooray for guys who can do guy stuff!  :)  So, look forward to seeing lots of dyeing in my future refashions, as I’ve been suffering from withdrawal pangs!

Hi Gary! :)

So…I made it through a day I had been dreading for quite a while…with a little help from my friends!  :)

I have to say, I’m extremely lucky to have all of the wonderful friends that I do.  These past few months could have been completely miserable if I didn’t have such an amazing support system.  :)  I’m honored and truly humbled by all of you.  I don’t think I say this enough, so Thank You.

Cheers!

Sort of look likes a choir robe, doesn’t it?

and Megan’s dress from the Season 5 premiere.

Singing a sultry version of Zou Bisou Bisou! :)

Just bear with me okay?  :)

I was inspired by the Bijou dress, and decided I wanted my own!  I got started by removing those massive shoulder pads.

Buh-bye! :)

Next, I snipped off those wrist cuffs to make the sleeves nice & flowy!

Amputation is in order!

Then I treated the edges with this stuff:

Be warned…this stuff makes a mess!

I could have hemmed the edges, but that would have made the ends of my sleeves heavy, making them not drape very nicely!

Now it was time to get this dress into shape!  Megan’s dress is sexy & fitted, and mine needs to be both of these things as well!  :)

Fitting on the dress form!

Pinning those sleeves!

I ran each side through my machine…

Whirrrrrr!

I trimmed off the extra fabric, then got to work on the length!

Chop!

I hemmed the bottom raw edge…but I still wasn’t completely happy with the fit.  I really wanted it to be a bit tighter, but didn’t have enough time to put it under the needle again.  :/  I grabbed my fave brooch and used it to cinch the fabric around my waist just a tad more.  This broke up the fuchsia a bit, too!

Whaddyathink?  :)

I think Don Draper would be pleased! ;)

I wore my slinky new frock for my dear pal Erin’s birthday dinner.  :)

I spy a birthday girl! :)

You gotta have friends! :)

Afterwards, I made the rounds to a few other fun places.  ;)

I have no idea what that thing on his head is!

This is what happens when you tell people “Act like you’re talking!” for a photo. :)

Ron is nicely camouflaged!

The painting compliments my dress oh so well! :)

I kinda wanna steal Molly’s sweet hat!

DINO-MYTE!!! :)

Cheers!

Really? What’s the plan?

There’s a lot to hate about this one.  The sleeves are awful, the fit is miserable, and the bottom is a bit more see-through than my modest tendencies find appropriate.  Basically, the only good thing about this dress is the fortuny pleating with contrasting lace on the top of the dress.

So let’s extract that, shaaaallllllll we?  :)  First, I cut off the bottom of the dress, right above the elastic waistband.

Chop!

Then, I pinned each side under the neck hole, like so:

Just like this!

I ran each side through my machine, and hacked of the leftover material from the sides.

Now I have a fairly gorge summer top!

Pretty!

I really like this one.  The pleating and lace make it look really luxe, even though it only cost me $1!  :)

Super Hero Pose!

Hooray for giant shades! :)

Cheers!

What’s to love?

I know…it looks like a big mess, but look a bit closer…

Books!

How whimsical and cute is this bookish print?!?!  I loves! :)

Unfortunately, this dress was just waaaaay too busy for my taste.  Time to pare it down a bit!

These guys absolutely had to go!

Party Crashers!

I removed the top part of the dress from the bottom part, right along the serged seam so it wouldn’t fray…

Snip!

I also snipped off those belt loops.

Hot. Snipping. Action.

I turned the top part of the dress around, using the zip-up back as the new front of my new jacket.  :)

Perfect art show attire! :)

I wore my new jacket to check out Christine Cannon’s show at McMaster Gallery.  You can see more of her work online right here.  :)

The artist and her work! :)

So…after a short stint dating someone I really liked I was…well…dumped.  :/

C’mon! How could you not want this?!?!

It happens.  Thankfully we hadn’t been seeing each other for very long at all.  He wasn’t a jerk about it or anything and he’s not a bad guy (Just in case he’s reading this right now ;) ). And no…there are no pics of us on this blog, so don’t even try to figure out who it was, okay?

Sorta made me feel like these cargo pants that had been dumped off at Revente’s Last Call (just go with the lousy metaphor, okay?).  Of course, they’re too big for me, but they had another issue as well!

Oh dear!

I was just going to turn this into a skirt, but decided to try something a bit more odd with this one (disappointment breeds creativity). :)

I unpicked the crotch.

Pick! Pick! Pick!

I unpicked all the way down each leg.  Then I put it on my dress form and got to pinning!  It was time to make this cargo skirt a cargo dress with lots of pockets…perfect for toting any residual emotional baggage!  :)

Pinning the back!

Pinning the front!

Then, I got to sewing!

Whirrrrr!

I tried my dress on, but it still needed a bit more tweaking.  I tried to keep the back pockets just as they were, but they made the back of the dress sag.  :/  So…I sewed right through ‘em!  :)

Taking in the back a bit more!

I cut off some of the length, and gave my dress a new hem.  When I tried it on, it looked pretty blah.  Then I remembered this top from Year 1.  I’d worn it all one one time, and then decided I didn’t care for it very much.  I decided to borrow its straps for my new dress!

Thanks, Old Top! :)

I pinned them down, then stitched them into place.

Now my odd little dress was ready for a day at work.  The SC Arts Commission has recently moved to a new building, and I’ve been setting up my new office!  :)

Do you like my Matchy-Matchy headband?  :)

And here’s how the back turned out!

Le back!

Sadly, no one at work got to see my sweet new dress, as we haven’t quite figured out how to make our new digs a normal human temperature!  I borrowed my boss’ sweater, after promising not to refashion it!  ;)

Mrrrrph!!! Brrrrrr!!!!!

As I left work that day, it began to rain.  I can not catch a break some days! As I walked the five blocks to my car, I cursed at myself for leaving my umbrella in Guywho Dumpedme’s (names have been changed to protect the innocent) car.

Wet, Cranky, and Blurry!

So I’ve decided to just not do that whole dating thing for a good bit, as apparently I’m not terribly good at it.  :/

Pass the pajama jeans and 13 cats!

I’m going to be the World’s Hottest Spinster…a Spilf, if you will!

Time to get a new umbrella.  I won’t lose it again.

Cheers!