I hardly ever go non-thrift clothes shopping anymore. But when I did, my fellow customers would always come up to me and ask the same questions.
“Do you work here?”
“Can you help me find _____?”
“Do you have this in a Size __?”
Every time I went shopping this happened, not just on those awkward days when I entered Target while wearing khakis and a red shirt. I didn’t get it. I still don’t get it. Usually I just play along and help them. It’s kind of fun. One time a lady rudely snapped at me, saying, “What does it take to get someone to start a dressing room for me around here?” I politely took her armful of clothes, saying “No problem, Ma’am!” Then I put each item in a different random place in the store and left.
When I found this $1 tee, it made me think of incidents like that.
I totally work here.
I have about a gazillion Tshirts, and I don’t really need another one. But I was tickled by the idea of wearing a Staff shirt to random places.
Luckily, I had this dress:
It looks great with jeans!
Remember that dress I made last week? Remember how I gave up on the idea of adding sleeves to it? This dress was meant to be used for the sleeves.
I even dyed it with the other dress.
Sharing a (dye) bath is always so much more pleasant, don’t you think?
I chopped off the bottom part, and even cut out the pieces for the sleeves and did the required stay stitching and prep work…
See?
…of course I ended up choosing to go sleeveless.
But what about the top part? It would be a shame to just let it go to waste!
I gave my new top a quick lil hem, like so:
Pinned!
Stitched!
Then, I cut out the “Staff” part of that Tshirt, and pinned it to my new top!
I dig this color combo!
I stitched it down,using a zigzag stitch, and now my new top is ready to work!
Workin’ it!
I actually did do a good bit of work that day at my favorite “office”. ;)
I was happy to have a friend join me when I was ready to clock out for the day. :)
The glamorous life of the over employed! ;)
Cheers!
Happy Sunday, Everybody! I hope yours is as delightfully relaxing as mine. :)
This week’s Reader ReFash comes from Jen over at Our Beautiful Messy Life (Isn’t that just a lovely name for a blog?).
She started with this two-piece dress she purchased from Etsy.
Herm.
I took a two-piece dress I ordered online a few years ago (that has never really fit very well, I can be picky about fit) and turned it into two separate pieces. I also added some of my favorite fabrics to both pieces to make them a little more interesting and give them some print. I called it the “Two-Piece Disappointment Dress”.
Here’s the fabric she used:
Pretty!
I really like the retro vibe of this one!
And here’s what she made from it!
Jen, your wrist tattoo is adorable. :)
I really like what she did with those bits of printed fabric (I think I’ll try something similar soon).
You can read more about this refashion on Jen’s blog right here!
Well done, Jen!
Cheers!
One of my resolutions for 2014 is to finish everything I
Wanna know what bugs me? Sewing Patterns. I hate them. You’ve probably noticed that I rarely use them. There are a few reasons for this. First off, they start too big. I’m somewhere between a size 0 and a 2. Every sewing pattern I find starts about 2 sizes bigger. Since I rarely sew using a pattern, I’m not good enough at it to be able to alter a pattern to a size that will actually fit me. It’s a vicious cycle. Also, I don’t like rules. Patterns are nothing but rules. Do this…then do this…cut this exactly like this…blahblahblahblahblah. Where’s the creativity in that? And having to iron out tissue paper that inevitably gets caught up in a breeze, falls to the floor, and then gets mangled by Douglas doesn’t thrill me either.
The last time I sewed something using a pattern was in August 2012. Now. Even though I hate the whole process, I feel like there’s something to be learned about garment construction from it. That’s why I pulled out this guy:
This one. Right here!
I was going to make that dress right there on the right. I would use one dress for the body, then another dress to make the raglan sleeves. What could possibly go wrong?
I started off with this simple linen number.
A perfect blank canvas!
I decided that blue was just a bit too bright, so I tossed it into a dye bath.
This should muddy it up nicely!
Sloshy sloshy!
After my starter dress was rinsed and dried, I got to cutting!
Don’t do it this way. Actually pin the thing. I’m being extremely lazy here.
The pattern called for a zipper, so I hand basted one on…
First I pinned…
…then I stitched!
I replaced the foot on my machine with a zipper foot…
This little guy right here.
…and stitched it down!
Whirrr!
By this time, I was curious to see how my dress was going to look, so I pinned those two sides together on my dress form.
It looks like a feed sack. :(
What the hell, Pattern? Why do you list measurements on your package that are clearly a big freakin’ LIE???? What would I bother making a too-big dress that I’ll end up having to refashion? Why would I want to waste my time like that?
This dress sat on my dress form for almost a month.
I hated it. It wasn’t going to look nice. The sleeves were going to look awful with it, and I’d end up having to redo the entire damn thing. Every time I walked into my sewing area, I was reminded of this disappointment.
I was about to just scrap the whole thing.
But I had to finish what I
I just wanted a cute dress. That’s all! So, I tossed that pattern aside, and started getting creative. I went ahead and sewed the pieces of the too-big dress together, except for the neck part. Then, I closed up those raw armholes.
Pin & Stitch!
I had a problem. Unless I could shrink my head to the size of my fist, it wasn’t going to fit through my new dress. :/
Say hello to Mr. Hand!
Not to worry! I had a plan! I also had a spool of grosgrain ribbon!
Hey buddy!
I took two strips of said ribbon and pinned them to my new dress on my dress form.
See where we’re going here?
I stitched them down…
Don’t worry! I trimmed off that extra ribbon when I was done!
…and after a press, my new dress was ready for a lovely night of theatre! :)
Ello!
I’m pretty pleased with this one. I especially like the back!
The zipper isn’t crooked. I’m just standing weird!
I think my new dress has a sort of 1920′s vibe to it, and I’m totally fine with my decision to give up on the original pattern and just wing it on my own. :)
Closeup of the front!
After a very long week, I must say I deeply enjoyed USC Theatre’s production of The 39 Steps! I hate to give spoilers of my upcoming review for Jasper Magazine, but this show is just fantastic, and you need to go see it if you can! :)
You must see this!!!
I was so very very happy to run into my mentor from my overworked college (Seriously…I put myself through college working 2-3 jobs and Stage Managing All The Things) days, K Dale! :)
I shouldn’t play favorites, but he’s my favorite. :)
After a quick burger stop, my evening was complete. :)
Hi Erin!
Cheers!
