Wannabe Wednesday: In The Red

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When a family member gave me this sweater, I was tempted to leave it as-is. I mean, it was so soft and comfy cozy!

I actually don’t think it looks bad. 🙂

But when I saw this dress by BCBG Max Azria, my plans changed!

Original Retail Price: $378

I can’t wait for spring refashions, but with temps still dipping into the 30s at night, I’m afraid they’re just not practical yet. :/ A sweater dress it would be!

My biggest challenge with this sweater was that it wasn’t long enough to make into a dress without adding fabric to the bottom. I decided to take a chance that after I took in the sides I’d have enough leftover fabric to harvest for the bottom of the dress.

With my fingers crossed (which made the whole process much more difficult), I got to pinning!

Taking in as much as possible!

I did this for each side, then I chopped off a bit of the sleeves to get the 3/4 look of my inspiration piece.

Bye sleeve!

I ran each side through my machine. Once with a straight stitch, then with a zigzag to try to prevent unraveling/fraying.

Whirrrr!

When I was done, I started the finicky business of trimming my scraps to save as much of the fabric as possible while still having enough to make my dress a decent length.

Saving all I can!

You can see the original serged side seam in the above pic. My plan is to use that to sort of mimic the layered look of Max’s dress (It’s a reach…I know!). I pinned the trimmed scraps to the bottom of my dress…stretching them slightly so they’d make it all the way across each side.

See where I’m going with this?

Next, I sewed them to the bottom of the original sweater using a zigzag stitch riiiiight on the very edge (once again…to keep it from unraveling).

See?

After I stitched the panel to each side, I sewed the sides together. All that was left to do was give the raw edges a little tug so they’d do this:

Curl! 🙂

I have several sweaters with edges like this that somehow manage to not fray, so I’m not too worried about using the same look myself. 🙂

Well…what do you think?

So warm and cozy!

I had a red sash that matched my dress already, so I didn’t end up having to harvest the material from the sleeves (which would have totally worked). I’m really happy with this refashion because there’s so little waste involved!

Yep. It looks like a squid is eating my head!

I wore my sweet frock to The Kraken where I enjoyed sampling their enormous selection of tasty brews!

Julian Cider for Jillian! 🙂

Photo evidence of my rudeness. :/

I spent my evening hanging out with these guys:

Hey fellas! 🙂

and this guy:

It’s Joe Turkaly, my fave Columbia SC Chef! 🙂

I really enjoy doing these wannabes! I hope you guys are getting inspired to make your own copycats too! 🙂

Original Cost: $378

Copycat Cost: Free!

Savings: $378!

Cheers!

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62 Responses to Wannabe Wednesday: In The Red

This one turned out way cute! Hope you keep this one- you look like a million bucks in it.

That Is Awesome!!

I don’t always leave you a comment but I always check in to see what you are up to. You are amazing, my friend….simply amazing! I LOVE yours better than the original! Wish you could make ME over!;>) Diana

WOW!!! That turned out SO GREAT!! Nice job!!

Wannabe Wednesday makes me wanna have skills like Jillian!

I love the way it turned out!

Love it! One of my favorites that you’ve done so far:) your so talented!!

Love it! But I have to admit sweaters scare me:/ so many I would love to alter but the fray thing freaks me out. Thanks for explaining how to avoid it! Love your blog I’m obsessed

Your sweater dress is adorable! I have been reading your blog for several weeks now, and you have inspired me to give refashioning a try. My only experience to date is sewing throw pillows, cushions and duvet covers, so this will be a new adventure. As you recommended, I got the Singer dress form, which I will be assembling today. Wish me luck.

That’s an incredible piece of work! A lot of refashioning I see is little more than cutting off a few inches at the bottom and adding a belt – THIS was remaking artistry! GOOD JOB!!!!!

Super cute!

Very Nice, it lookss very lux!! You simply amaze me with the items you create, very talented indeed! As always, looking forward to seeing what you do next.

As usual, a GREAT JOB, Jillian!!!! I think this may be one of my favorites!!!!

This is my favorite refashion ever! I love the finished dress, I might like it even better than the 378 one!

one of your best. Another hint for turtleneck type sweaters is to undo the seam on the turtle neck and let it fall open giving it a new look(I do this because I don’t like confining necks).

Wow – that looks amazing! Am knitting a jumper at the moment and am purposely doing those rolled hems as I think they look lovely.

I completely agree — amazing refashion! I much prefer a refashion that takes it beyond just cutting and fitting. In this refashion you added a design element that made it cuter than the original inspiration piece. By the way, your hairstyle is super cute!

This is way cuter than the original! The neck is nicer, and I love the fit. I think this is one of your best.

Really nice, love the colour!

I’ve liked a lot of your other refashions and thought they were so neat how you did it. HOWEVER, this one I LOVE!!! OMG!

My fav refashion so far. You rock!!

That is awesome! I love the look at the bottom, and I’m so impressed by how you made it work!

Best refash yet!!

Looks great. One of my favorites too

This is one of my favorites for refashions you’ve done! It looks so good on you!!! Rock it!

This one is my new favorite!

I follow your blog on a regular basis, but this is the first time I’ve been compelled to comment. This is by far my favorite Refashion to date. Amazing!

You and your dress simply look gorgeous ! Bravo for the refash, this is amazing what you’ve done with this sweater. I have an orange one, soft and cosy that I’ve planned to refashion too, I may be fully inspired by your dress (which is a million times much better than the original)
And by the way, I love your haircut and the black background.
Carry on !

Downright awesome. You look absolutely gorgeous and I’m pondering whether to buy a bloody sewing machine altogether now.

Totally amazing!

I couldn’t believe how wonderful this refashion turned out – AMAZING!!!!! This is definitely my very favorite of all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I think I’ve used up my quota of exclamation points but I’m totally blown away!)

Love that!!!!!

That is amazing! Your so good with that sewing machine!

Lauren
livinginaboxx

Excellent! One of my most favorite you’ve done.

That turned out great! Thanks for inspiring me!

Definitely a fave!! Love the way it turned out!!

Amazing! I just started following your blog. I love it and what you do with clothes. I bet you never wear the same thing twice!

Thank you! I’ll tell ya what…you’re kinda right! I wear a few things a lot, but I usually donate my creations back out into the world after a couple of wears. 🙂

I know I’ve said it before, but ohwell, too bad: I’m pretty sure this is my fav refash so far!!! It looks AWESOME.

This is one of my favorites! Way to go!

You are too too much! Your eye, your skill, your courage! OK, you’re not risking much money, but I’m just so impressed!

One of my favorite refashes!!!!! I love this!!!

This looks amazing! I’ve been following your refashions but this has got to be my fav! So awesome!

Definitely a keeper! Great job.

My favorite by far!

This is GREAT!!!!. My Favorite so far. You amaze me.

definitely one of my faves to date! it looks really smart!

Super, super cute! I was a little nervous for the outcome when you added to the bottom, but it looks great!

You got talent!!!!!

Really, really nice. Looks very good on you. I like how you’re showing us where your inspiration for certain details comes from, too. I have NO ideas of my own so it’s nice to learn some ways to find them!

I love all your refashions, but this one has GOT to be one of my faves!! Freakin’ fabulous!!!

I love this! And red looks great on you with your dark hair! 🙂

You know, a couple of weeks ago I read through your entire blog. Yes, the entire thing. And in like, a day which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but it totally was. And I just needed to tell you that you have inspired me so much. I always wanted to refashion. I always went to thrift shops with the intent of getting something to refashion, but it just never worked out. Until I found this blog. Now I feel like I can do just about anything with a good print or awesome fabric. I have already refashioned a TON of things, dresses especially. And I plan to donate all of my old wardrobe that just doesn’t fit my personality any more. You are great, and thanks for giving me the motivation to be great also.

You are simply amazing! I love reading your blogs!

This dress is rocking the house. If someone told me that the dress started out as an oversized sweater, I wouldn’t believe it. I also can’t believe that you had enough material left to make a dress – that’s amazing! Although I like the original dress and would wear it, your dress has a more modern vibe to it.

My favorite so far! Now off to thrifting so find a big sweater! Love your creativity, thanks for the inspiration and sharing.

Girl, you are DA BOMB!!! Okay, I’m on a weight loss journey, and about halfway thru. I’ve been donating all my clothes that are too big- altho I really LOVED some of tghem. THEN a couple of months ago- I discovered your blog….a fellow South Carolina girl too!!(Greenville Area), and now I’m not getting rid of ANYTHING!!! I’m watching with GREAT interest your re-fashions and learning how to apply the things you do to my wardrobe!!! You are my new best friend blogger!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this refashion particularly!!! <3

I love it! I think this is my favourite re-fashion yet!

Love this!! Thank you for inspiring me (and I’m sure many others!) to really start refashioning. I’ve always enjoyed sewing, but repurposing is so much more fun to me than patterns. Its great to give new life to something! 🙂

This might be my favorite refashion yet! Keep up the good work.

Love it!

This is great! Love the detailed work, shows off your skills! 🙂

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Wannabe Wednesday: In The Red | ReFashionista