Refashion Clothes

Day 363: All the Angles Dress

ReFashionista 21 Comments

When I found today’s dress at one of my fave $1 thrift stores,  I was stoked!  Check out the amazeballs print!  :)

The shoulder pads are slightly less than amazeballs,

You’re looking at a totally 80’s shoulderpadded number that desperately needs a facelift!  Time for a Nip/Tuck!

First, I made a big chop!

Nip!

Then, I took in the whole thing about 2″ on each side.

Pin, then Sew! :)

After cutting off the excess material, I folded the top raw edge over twice and stitched it down, leaving about a 1″ gap.  This is where I’m going to insert some elastic.

Tuck!

After digging through my stash, I realized I was all out of elastic!  Ugh!  And I was soooo not in the mood to make a last-minute craft store run!  :/

Then I remembered this leftover scrap from Day 315!

You shall be sacrificed!

I cut off the elastic waistband…

Why didn’t I think of this before????

I threaded the elastic through the dress’ new casing…

Thread it!

Then, I stitched the two ends together, as well as the 1″ gap I left to insert the elastic through.

Closing up shop!

Now that dress is ready for a fun night of Karaoke with friends!   :)

From Sad to Sassy! :)

My shoes are pretty sweet, too! ;)

The PBR tall boy in her hair really ties the whole look together! ;)

Hey, LA! :)

I would love to say that my dress was the most stylish thing I saw tonight, but this simply wouldn’t be true.

This hat beats a cute dress any day! :)

It really completes my ensemble! :)

Squids are so hot right now!

The right accessories make a difference, y’all! :)

Cheers!

Day 350: Charity Shop Chic Top

ReFashionista 13 Comments

Sometimes I draw a lot of inspiration blatantly steal ideas from other refashionistas out there.  Today’s refash is inspired by Sally over at Charity Shop Chic.  :)

Sally’s blog recently featured a Carrie Bradshaw Month, where she created clever knockoffs of stylish pieces worn by Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City.

She was inspired by this top right here…

Tres Chic, no?

…so she created her own version (you can check out Sally’s tutorial here) out of a thrifted tee!  :)

Sweet! :)

I decided I simply must have a go at making my own version!  I managed to thrift a navy and white stripey tee for $1.

Not very exciting, eh?

Alright.  I knew I wanted my tee to be fitted like SJP’s, and I knew I didn’t want to lose any of the bottom length (I like my tees a bit longer than normal).  This meant I’d be deviating from Sally’s tutorial (where she got the fabric for the flower from the bottom) and winging it!  :)

I took my tee in 3″ on each side.

Whirrrr!!!

Then, I cut off the excess material…

Choppage!

Okay…now here’s where I go out on my own.  I pinned the doubled up serged seam from one of the chopped off sides into a pleated spiral.  This will make my flower nice and full.  Then, I put it under the needle!

Stitching it down!

I didn’t make my flower as big as SJP’s or Sally’s.  If you want a larger flower, just stitch the two discarded sides together and make a bigger spiral.

I opted for a pretty shoulder flower instead.  :)

Quite fetching, I think! :)

Next time I do this project, I’ll try not to chicken out and go full-flower!  :D

This will do nicely til then! :)

Cheers!

Day 338: Spoleto Dress

ReFashionista 12 Comments

Today’s dress was a freebie from a friend. :)

How very Carolina Cup. :/

I needed something comfy, light, and fun to wear for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC.  With just a few modifications, this dress would work just fine!  At first glance, you might not see anything wrong with this one…but let’s delve a bit deeper, shall we?

I don’t like it.  It fits perfectly, but I don’t like the whole red & white color scheme (too stark!), the length is awful, and that little crinoline-y layer makes my legs itch.  :/

Oh…and that stupid flower?  Yeah…it’s coming undone.  :/

Not feeling the flower power. :/

With the raveling fake flower ripped off, I put my dress into a nice little dye bath.  :)

Today is brought to you by the color Purple (no…not that movie where some dude hits Oprah)! :)

The dye job helped…but I still needed to get rid of that crinloline-y thing!  Away it went!  :)

Buh-bye! You shan’t be missed! :)

So that itchy ruffle was out of the picture, but I still wasn’t feeling the whole tea length thing.  I knew I’d be walking around all day in the hot sun, so I shortened my dress to accommodate my wandering!

Chop!

Pin!

Sew!

I pressed my new dress, tossed on a contrasting yellow floral belt, and was ready for a fun day in Charleston!  :)

‘Ello!

How’s it going? :)

Here are a few of the sights I saw while meandering about:

This.

And This.

And This.

And then there’s This.

Before you even contemplate complimenting me on my photography skillz, please note that I didn’t take any of those lovely shots.  Instead,  I handed my camera to this guy:

Larry Blyth: Guest Photographer. :)

I had a complete and utter blast getting my culture on in this lovely city! :)

Cheers!

Day 337: Art Collector Dress

ReFashionista 12 Comments

Wow!  Check out this mumsy number!  :/

Oooooh! Sweet collar….not! :P

As you can see, I’m not entirely thrilled about this dress, folks.  It’s made of a lovely lightweight linen (perfect for a hot SC day), and that coral hue is just delightful.  But I can’t get over that flippin’ collar!  :/

An amputation is in order, friends.

It’s a mercy killing, I swear! :)

Okay!  That ugly collar is gone, freeing up what is actually a very pretty V-neck.  :)  But something had to be done about that length!

Chop!

I couldn’t just leave that raw edge fraying all over the place, so under the needle it went!  :)

A brand new day & a brand new hem!

I’m almost done!  :)  This dress, though shortened and de-collared was still waaaay to big for me.  Not to worry!  I wrapped those weirdo side sash thingies around me twice and tied them in the front.  Problem solved!  I rolled the sleeves up twice, and was good to go!

I headed off to the Tapp’s Art Center for their Pretty Girls Presents Concept: Consumerism Art Show.

Gotta have art! :)

See that yellowy/orangey piece behind me?  I actually ended up buying it!  :)  Not buying any new clothes this year has really freed up my art budget!  ;)

She made that apron herself! :)

You should go to this! :)

Cheers!  :)

Day 326: Grecian Bubble Dress

ReFashionista 6 Comments

I love the dark green hue and subtle print of today’s dress…

This is what I look like at 5am with no makeup and bedhead. Now ya know.

…and that’s it!  I didn’t like weird cross-over top of the dress at all.  It felt really stifling!

I got to snipping!

Snip!

I carefully snipped the top part away from the bottom part, right along the serged edge, so it wouldn’t fray.

For some dresses, this would be a totally no-sew refash, but I had to stitch down a couple of things before I moved forward.

Sewing off those pockets!

Stitching down that zipper!

Next, I pulled it under my arms with the bottom hem as the top, and the smaller waist as the bottom and pinned it once…

Riiiiiight there!

Then I began folding it back and forth in front of me, making pleats, like so:

Fold…and fold…and fold…and fold!

Then, I pinned that from the inside.

Riiiight here!

Alllllmost done!  I pinned one of my favorite brooches to the center of the pleated section (both to accessorize and to secure this dress even further) and that was that!  :)

Another one of my grandmother’s awesome brooches!

I wore my funky bubble hem dress to work and for an after-work happy hour showing of an terrific installation by local artist, Eileen Blyth!

Loving that funky bubble hem!

And here’s a few pics of the installation!

At the Adluh building!

This is made from salvaged metal found in the Vista.

I really wanted to take little orange dude home with me! :)

And here’s the artist!

Either Eileen is tall, or I’m short. :)

Cheers!