Hi guys! I’ve been getting quite a few, “Hey…where are ya?” emails lately. Rest assured, I’m quite thoroughly alive and well! There’s just a lot going on right now…some of which I can’t share with you yet (but I can’t wait to!).
First off, I’ve been busy house hunting! My landlord is selling my house, and I’ve decided to buy one. :) This will be my first foray into home ownership, and I’m actually pretty excited about it. I’m really going to miss my current abode though. I don’t think I realized how much I liked it until I found out it’s being taken away (#metaphor)! :/
Other than that, I’ve been busy spending time with friends & my new(isn) fella and trying to keep warm in this cold snap that’s hit SC so very hard. It’s hard to refashion when you just want to hide under warm sweaters and fleece-lined leggings every day! The time I usually spend sewing has been spent cooking tasty warm things for my favorite people. :)
But when I flipped through my refash rack the other day, I saw this sad frock and knew I had to do something with it!
Hello again!
This dress was a challenge. It’s handmade, but not very well. :/ The hem was uneven and a lot of it was hastily sewn together. It was also riddled with holes along the seams.
Riddled, I say!
Herm. :/
This dress is definitely suffering from a bit of internal damage…
I can still work with this, though! To get started, I did a bit of de-doilying!
Enough is enough!
The lace bits were only loosely hand-sewn, so removing most of them wasn’t very hard or time-consuming.
Moderation is key.
Now that those doily bits were gone, I was ready to do some reshaping!
Reshaping in progress!
First Whirrrrrrrrr of the new year! :)
My frock was looking much better, but I still needed to deal with that too-long/unevem hem. To do this, I measured from the waist of the dress, rather than the bottom. I marked along the edge, then snipped away!
Better!
I then stitched down that raw edge.
New hem!
After a good press, I think my dress looks quite sweet!
It’s positively ModClothian! :)
It’s a bit more cutesy/girly than I usually go, so I spiced it up a little with my fave leopard print boots and minty green tights.
I wore my new dress to The Nickelodeon to check out one of my new favorite horror films, The Babadook!
One of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen!
Of course, it’s pretty chilly here, so most folks only got to see my new frock like this:
Gotta love a cozy sweater! :)
Now that that fearsome frock has been conquered, the only thing I have to fear is Mr. Babadook!
Eep!
Cheers!
Hello everyone, and Happy Holidays! I hope yours have been just lovely and that you’ve spent them with those you hold dear, whoever they may be! :)
When I woke up Christmas morning, I eagerly rushed to my refashion rack. I had been holding on to something very special for December 25th.
Yowza!
When I was in Hawaii a couple months ago, I couldn’t resist picking up this awesome muu muu with its happy Christmas colors!
Then the waiting game began.
I waited patiently until Christmas and was happy to start chopping into to this ruffly frock!
First, that top ruffle had to go.
Snnnnip!
That bottom ruffle quickly followed!
Do you see a future skirt in that ruffle? I sure do!
In chopping of that bottom ruffle, the length of my new dress was quickly approaching the danger zone of too short! No worries. In order to make the smallest hem possible, I serged the bottom edge to prevent fraying, then pinned it under once about 1/2 inch.
Just a teensy hem!
I stitched it down…
Whirrrrrr!!!
And just like that, I was all done and ready to spend a very Merry Christmas with some terrific friends. :)
Oh! and just look at my fantastic Christmas present!
Wow!
Ooookay…I’m just kidding! This sweet ride belongs to my friend’s husband.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t pose with it! :)
My posing needs a lil work…
Erin and I spent the afternoon catching a much-anticipated film!
Into the Woods…It’s time to go! :)
That’s right! Into the Woods!
Erin and I were quite excited about it!
Happy Christmas pals!
We even stopped for…ahem…refreshments beforehand!
Juice Boxes for grownups!
Cheers!
A few months ago I was asked to present at a Pecha Kucha.
What is a Pecha Kucha, you ask?
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:
PechaKucha or Pecha Kucha (Japanese: ペチャクチャ, IPA: [petɕa ku͍̥tɕa],[1] chit-chat) is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). The format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers multiple-speaker events called PechaKucha Nights (PKNs).[2][3]
I’m a nervous public speaker, but I’m trying to get over it. And of course the best way to do that is to actually speak in public. As the day got closer and closer I got more and more nervous…
I needed a dress for the big night!
I started with this one:
It was 5am when I took this pic
This dress is actually made of terry cloth! It’s amazing! This fabric was really popular in the 70’s-early 80’s and I firmly believe it needs to make a comeback. I seriously feel like I’m wearing a bathrobe. And that’s pretty awesome.
You’ll have to forgive me, friends. The memory card that has the “during” pics for this one has gone totally kaputzky, so I can’t share them with you. :/
But I can tell you what I did! :) First, I removed the elastic from the waist. Then I raised the hem to daring new heights! I pretty much wanted a clone of this one cozy sweater dress I’ve been wearing a lot of this winter. That original snug waistline just wouldn’t do for an event where I knew I’d already be pretty uncomfortable.
And here’s how it turned out!
Sort of Mod, no?
This handsome (and rather tall) gentleman seemed to like it too. ;)
Oh. Ello.
As my turn to present got closer and closer, I got more and more nervous!
I have the worst selfie faces.
But then I remembered why I was doing this. I love refashioning and I believe that I really can change the world by sharing this passion with others.
We can change the world. One dress at a time.
The awesome guys at PULL Brand Stories even recorded a video of it! It’s kind of dark (because the room was kind of dark), and you can’t see all of my slides, but I hope you like it. :)
I feel pretty good about this one. The audience was awesome, and I hope I get the chance to present at another Pecha Kucha soon!
I look like a smug little thing, don’t I? ;)
Cheers!
