ReFashionista
Feelin’ Fierce in Fuschia
Even I had my doubts when I bought this frightening fuschia flop for a buck.
Fierce in Fuschia! Grrrrrrrowl!!!!
The color really isn’t my bag, but I liked the crispness of the fabric and I really wanted a bright shirtdress with a full skirt. The only possible contender I found was this hunk of pepto dismal.
The first thing I had to do was remove a few extremities.
Pink pads of doom!
We’re not very attractive.
Including this really absurd pocket with some sort of coat of arms embroidery on it
Weirdo Coat of Arms Pocket
ripping off that weirdo pocket!
My work had only just begun. Next, I desperately needed to take the top of the dress in…a good bit. I like marking where I’m going to be sewing with chalk before I pin it. I also measure the taking in area on both sides with my sewing gauge to make sure both sides are even.
just normal, everyday chalk.
Then I pinned along the chalk line.
Once both sides were pinned, I sewed along the chalk line on each side, then cut off the excess material.
Next, I needed to fix the newly shortened sleeves. I decided to go with a rolled look by rolling the sleeves twice and pressing them. To make sure they stayed rolled up, I sewed them down like so on the bottom of the sleeve.
the stitch that zigs!
I used a zigzag stitch to keep the raw edge of the newly slenderized sleeve from unraveling. Don’t worry. Nobody will even see it, as it’s under my arm.
Next, I needed to alter the length. No minidress for me today! I wanted this to fall just above my knees.
Basement kitteh holds the dress down while I snip
Then I hemmed the bottom of the dress with my favorite rainbow thread.
taste the rainbow
And that’s it! I now had a very cute 50′s ish dress that I felt quite fetching in.
ello stranger!
Fierce in Fuschia 2.0!
This dress was perfect for an evening perusing Columbia, SC’s Main Street for their First Thursday (happens on the first Thursday of every month) art shows! I was most excited to see the works of Lyon and Jennie Mae Hill at Frame of Mind. I took pics of a few of my favorites.
Awesome plushies my Jennie Mae Hill!
A collaboration piece by Lyon and Jennie Mae Hill (It’s a marionette y’all!)
an Interactive piece titled “Incubus” by Lyon Hill
And since I was all about Columbia artists last night, I even accessorized with this nifty pin made by local artist, Clark Ellefson. It’s a little piece of a road sign that he’s refashioned into my favorite pin.
I’m Jillian’s favorite pin!
Scarf it up baby! Scarf. It. Up.
Hey guys…remember this (seriously…it was only last week…try to keep up)?
Look at those ties! Eeeep!
…which I turned into this?
a vision in blue!
Well…this refashioning left something behind…the cut off extra length from the bottom of the dress.
…seven days…
As it lay there on the floor, I swear I heard it say, “Seven Days!” in that creepy voice from The Ring.
Was I going to let this scrap of fabric haunt me from its grave? Oh hell no. Hell. No.
leave no scrap behind!
No real reason for including this pic, other than I think I look just precious.
I refused to be bullied by fabric ghost! As I really loooooove that hue of blue, I couldn’t just toss it out. Instead, I simply wrapped it around my neck three times to make my new eternity scarf. Sweet! Another no-sew super easy refashioning! Perfect for giving my black on black work ensemble a bit of panache, as well as classing up my more casual evening wear. 
It’s SKAGZILLA, Columbia’s most awesome (and tallest) Roller Derby Announcer!!!!!
Tunic or not Tunic?
yick!
Whoa. Just Whoa. What was I thinking when I purchased this scary dress for fifty cents at Goodwill? I understand your concern. There isn’t a lot of good in this dress, but there’s a lot of tacky and just plain bad in it. However, I’m a sucker for teal, and I actually like the print, just not in such a large, bulky quantity. Call me crazy, but I saw potential.
First off, several things had to go. That big, functionless button on the neck was removed. Next to go were the shoulder pads, the weird puffy things that were sewn into the seam between the shoulder and sleeves (like it really needed more poofage), and the sleeves themselves. Later losers!
Pads!
Puffy sleeve things!
Don’t worry. It’s not like a starfish…a new ugly dress won’t grow from the sleeve!
Ahhhhhh…better already! I still didn’t like that big vertical strip on contrasting fabric on the front of the dress. I also thought the high neck was rather ugly as well. So, I decided to turn it around and make the back of the dress the front of the dress. The back originally closed with a couple of buttons. I removed those, snipped down a couple of inches, and pinned these edges down. This was going to be the new V-neck for the new front.
Front shall be back and back shall be front!
Then, I pinned the raw edges under for the arm holes and sewed them down, along with the new neck.
sleeveless!
The sleeveless look was definitely an improvement, but I wanted the top of the dress to look more feminine. To do this, I hand ruched the shoulders.
ruchy!
Now I needed to fix two issues. First off, the top part of the dress is too big for me. Also, making the back of the dress the front has made it lay weird, with the front fabric section being smaller than the back. To fix both of these problems, I folded the back section under the front (about an inch on each side), pinned it, and then sewed it into place.
Pinned side seam
The last decision I had to make was a difficult one. Did I want this dress to remain a dress, or turn it into a tunic instead? The fabric was just too busy to leave the skirt at its current length. I eventually (I seriously waffled back and forth on this for about 30 minutes) decided to split the difference and make it into a minidress.
Trimmy trimmy
hemmy hemmy
I cut a strip from the excess material, and made it into a thin belt/sash for my waist. For my final steps, I pressed the new hem, and then had to re-press the bottom of every single pleat back in place.
this is very boring btw.
Now I had a cute little boho dress I could wear as a tunic by day
Ooh! What’s that over there?
…and as a dress by night!
showing some leg
Fortuny for the Fortuneless
Friday’s dress started off as a piece that perhaps only a fashion history buff would bother with.
Look at those ties! Eeeep!
Yipes. Lots and lots of grey-blue with an obnoxious tie neck (which I despise). I had already begun snipping the sleeves before I took the “Before” pic for this one (I keep forgetting…I’m a blogger now!), but here’s an idea of what they started out as.
Why would I choose this dress to revamp, you ask? Well…first off, it was only a dollar and the color kind of rocks…I just want less of it. And most importantly, it reminds me of the dresses designed by Mariano Fortuny that were oh so chic in the 1920s-1930s. Here are a couple of examples:
love that pleating!
Peplos Gown
I mean, look at those pleats on the top of the dress! Someone was definitely channeling Fortuny!
Fortuny Wannabe!
Granted, I was working with a light polyester 1970’s day dress, and not one of Fortuny’s exquisite silk satin hand-pleated tea gowns, but those sell for 5 digits, whereas I scored mine for 1 (digit and dollar).
Of course, alterations would need to be made. As I said, I HATED that ridiculous tie neck. Out came the scissors.
Ties are lame. Don’t worry ties, you’re going to be the new sash for my new dress.
I hid where I cut the ties by widening the V-neck and pinning it to get it ready for some hand-stitchery.
pinned!
Next, I decided to cut more fabric from the sleeves. I originally wanted to keep them at a ¾ length so this dress could transition into the fall, but quickly realized that to remove the frump factor, there would have to be more severe trimmage. Hello cap sleevelets!
sleevelet!
The original length was mid-calf. I was in the mood for something more fun. Right now, I’m all about my dresses falling mid-thigh, and this one was no exception.
Basement kitteh supervises dah snippage.
The last two steps were sewing the two ends of the ties together to make my simple sash to cinch the waist of the dress, and then tacking down the new V-neck with as unnoticeable stitching as possible.
hand stitchery
And that’s it! Viola! I now own a lovely grecian dress that I adore. I wore it to work all day, and continued rocking it into the evening at one of my favorite places, Cellar on Green for dinner. They have an AMAZING and ever-changing wine selection.
a vision in blue!
mmmmm….wine!
Cheers!
Later at Art Bar with a tasty bev
Under Da Sea
Somethin’ fishy’s goin’ on here…
What you see here is a jumper-dress that I could totally see a first grade teacher wearing in the early 90’s. However, I was really taken with the happy fish print. Maybe this is because I haven’t been on vacation in awhile. Maybe it’s time.
I originally had plans to make today’s piece a tunic with a deep V-neck and a racerback. However…nature had other plans…
It looked juuuust like this, I swear!
Just as I was about to start working on it, it began to storm outside…complete with tons of lightning. As I’m all about not getting electrocuted, I refrained from pulling out my very much electric sewing machine. I was going to have to think of another idea.
This brings us to a no-sew day. First, I snipped off the little strappies that were meant to gather the jumper-dress in the back.
Gone. And Gone.
Next, I put it on over my head, but not with my arms in the armholes like so.
Then, I just rolled it over a couple times to make a super comfy roll-top skirt.
rollin’ rollin’ rollin’!
It actually stayed up just fine on it’s own, but I decided to dress it up a bit with a wide vintage belt.
Mmmmm! Starbucks!
Forgive the too-bright back lighting. It was taken on my apparently very light sensitive cell phone camera by the obliging Katie at the GFerry Starbucks.
In the end, I was actually glad that Plan A didn’t work out. As a tunic, it would’ve just looked like a swimsuit cover up. It’s much more attractive as a nice, long, flowy skirt. Thanks Nature.
Do they know it’s Christmas (in July)?
I have no idea, and am willing to accept any and all theories as to what the purpose of the below garment is supposed to be.
What am I????
Scary eh? A huge hazmat grade viscose green and red housedress with massive sleeves, ugly length, and no breatheability whatsoever. Usually I would cringe at the not-quite teal and red color scheme. However, this worked perfectly for the Christmas in July party I was going to at The Whig. It was going to need a lot of help though.
First, those sleeves had to go! My arms were gonna need some fresh air. Snip and Snip.
We’re ugly and you won’t miss us.
Now I needed to take the top of the dress in. I decided against taking in the bottom part, because it had pockets! Wonderful pockets! I also thought a slightly poofier skirt would actually look nice and festive for the evening. But, back to the top. I took it in 3″ at its biggest part and tapered down to take it in 2″ by the time it got to the waist. I drew this line in chalk, and then pinned as you see here.
it’s just plain old chalk, y’all.
I then put it through my sewing machine, sewing along the chalk line (I can’t sew a straight line on my own). I did this for the other side as well. Now, on to those arm holes!
Pin, then sew!
More pinning. More sewing. I decided to use my merriest red thread on this dress to make it even more Christmas-y.
Now…time to deal with that skirt! As I said earlier, the length was horrible. I wanted it to fall mid-thigh. As I cut, my sweet little kitty, Edith decided to help out.
I don’t have opposable thumbs, so I’m not very helpful.
Once the skirt was hacked, I folded the raw edge under about an inch, and then folded it under AGAIN. This fabric was fray city, and I didn’t want a messy seam to ruin my night. There are other ways to keep your seams from fraying, and I’m sure you’ll see them here in due course.
gimmie some thread!
Once the new hem was sewn, I was almost done! There was just one more, VERY important step. I needed to iron all of my new seams. ALWAYS do this! It’s the step that will give your piece that “finished” look.
a most “pressing” matter.
Now that my seams were looking spiffy, all I had to do next was make a sash out of the leftover fabric from the skirt to hide that elasto-waistband.
And that’s it! I now had a dress that was ready for some holiday cheer! I actually wore it all day yesterday. This is definitely a “makes me feel pretty” dress that I am quite taken with.
Feelin’ Holly and Jolly.
my guardian angels!
Yay! Presents!
Touched by an Angel
Cheers!
I’ve gotta have some of your attention
Usually I avoid shopping when hungry. I thought this precaution only applied to grocery shopping until I bought this guy for a mere fitty cent at Goodwill.
Hi. I’m not very interesting.
What food did this immediately make me think of (and instantly crave), you ask?
Orzo!
A big plate of Orzo!
looks just like dried orzo
Sadly, the Columbia Greek Festival is still months away, so this is about as close as I’m gonna get to my beloved orzo for now.
So, I needed a fun strapless top for a Wednesday night of Trivi-YEAH! at the Whig, followed by Mr. B’s Goodtime Karaoke Explosion. A top that could withstand the mind-boggling South Carolina heat. A top that would be fun and funky. Basically anything but what the above pic represents.
To make this “Emph” top into an “Ooomph!” top, a few amputations (insert eeevil laughter here) were neccessary.
This will only hurt for a minute…
Ah! Now we’re getting somewhere. Do you see the strapless top yet? I decided to use the elastic-y bottom as the new top of my new top. All I had to do was take it in a few inches on each side so it would stay up and keep as much of the width at the new bottom as I could to allow for my hips (and so I could get into the thing). After that, I sewed the new bottom raw edge under. I was rather pleased with the results.
Oooh la la!
After adding a few tres chic accessories, including a belt I thrifted for a dollar and a kicky beret, I was ready to get trivial!
Team What About Bob FT(almost)W!
Wednesday is $2 (4x what I paid for my top) Pint Night at The Whig!
At the end of the night, we came in second place, which felt like first. High fives were exchanged. Afterwards, We karaoked to our hearts’ content. And, because I know you care, I rocked out like Chrissie Hynde with “Brass in Pocket”. Cause I’m special (special!)…soooo special….much like my new lil strapless top.
Blue Monday
I was definitely feeling some New Order this Monday. After an amazing weekend of relaxing, carousing, and pool partying, it was hard to come back to the daily grind. I figured I’d go catch some funny at the Art Bar Players Improv rehearsal, followed by a rousing game of Cutthroat Uno. However, my gym clothes just weren’t gonna cut it. After a long day of work followed by a run, I wanted nothing more than to just slip into some jammies. Which brings us to Monday night’s piece.
pajama time!
You’ll be happy to know that this one is easy, and involves NO SEWING WHATSOEVER! First, I snipped the collar off of the pajama top as you can see above. Then I buttoned it up on me like so:
Almost done!
Making sure the raw edges were tucked under, I took the arms and tied them around my back to make my new flowy strapless summer top!
sitting pretty on the tiki bar
double-knotted and secure
I could be an airline hostess in the 60′s…
First, I hacked off the skirt to a shorter length. Then, took in the whole thing a couple of inches on each side. This made the skirt just look plain weird, so I undid my seams on the skirt and re-shaped it to what you see here. But THEN I realized that the skirt was suuuuuper short! While I am certainly not opposed to showing a lil thigh, I wanted to wear this dress to work, soooooo, that explains that panel at the bottom. I actually like it better with the bottom panel, as it makes the bottom of the dress look more interesting. I even sewed it on with my awesome rainbow thread!
With the dress completed, I strapped on my bronzy gladiators, earrings, and a tiny vintage pin, along with the original belt (woot!) that was still with the dress when I bought it.
Not bad for a dolla.
It’s hip to wear squares!
This top was fairly easy. I hacked off the 3/4 length poufy sleeves to make lil cap sleeves. Sewed new lil cap sleeve raw edges under. The neck was super tight, so I cut a 5″ slit down the middle and sewed those raw edges under as well. I didn’t have to take this one in at all! Yay!
a comfy sheer top for another scorching SC day!
Also, on the left shoulder, there’s a velcro strip, which would be how you would get into this thing with the old (horribly constricting) neck. I stitched this closed to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions.
I like how this matches:
A. the screen behind me
B. the SC Arts Commission conference room
C. the opening credits for “Saved By The Bell”
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Recent Posts
Archives
Calendar
