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Refashionista No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion

No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion

by
Thrift Score Thursday
Kimono Klashing

This has been the warmest winter I have ever experienced.

While some of you are undoubtedly bundling up in thick puffy coats over thick puffy vests, we’ve been wearing short sleeves and flip flops for the past month here in SC.

Until today. Last night, temps finally plummeted to winter-appropriate levels. :/

I pulled my porch plants inside and shrugged.

It was time.

While I hate being cold more than anything in the entire world, I LOVE wearing warm, cuddly, fleece-lined things, like this house robe/loungey dress thing.

A No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion before
Sooooo cooooomfy!

This robe is one of the most comfortable things I have ever worn.

It’s made of a sweatshirt-like fabric that makes me want to curl up in a reading nook with a cup of tea.

I love the neckline and the color is one of my faves too!

Unfortunately, I can’t go to work in a housecoat (I already pushed the envelope enough with my kimono yesterday). No worries.

This is a one-step no-sew refashion, folks!

All I needed to do was make one big chop from the bottom of the dress.

cutting bottom off dress
Bam!

That’s it.

I thought about taking my new tunic dress in but just couldn’t bear to lose any of that oversized coziness on this chilly day.

I tossed on a couple sweet vintage accessories…

vintage brooch
Thrifted for $1!
thrifted bracelet
A thrift store find from back when I was 16 years old!

…and hopped over to work!

A No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion after
Doesn’t the white background make all of this look so very legit?
A No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion after
Just hanging out here in front of my big white paper thing…like a totally legit model or something.
A No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion after with bicycle pump
Even this goofy pic is somehow made more legit by the giant white thing. 😉

So yeah…I’m a fan of the big white thing. 🙂

I’m also a fan of my coworker, Courtney who snapped those pics for me! 🙂

Jillian and coworker
Marketing Mavens!

Cheers!

Refashionista No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion before and after
Thrift Score Thursday
Kimono Klashing

65 thoughts on “No-Sew Cozy Tunic Dress Refashion”

  1. Love the styling!! Just me, but I would have hemmed ad sewn the gaping pockets closed. Looks a little sloppy, but probably just me.

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  8. How much do you spend in a month on your thrifting(if this is too personal I apologize!) And what will you do with all this fabulous refashion? Do you keep it all or share with others? I love thrifting but because there are so many awesome items at my Salvation Army everything’s a $1 store….. Well I end up with too much! I cam never get over the excess in the USA of really nice nice clothing. For one dollar!

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  10. Looks amazing! I absolutely LOVE that you’re posting daily for a whole YEAR!! What a treat! I couldn’t resist going back and re-reading every post from the beginning (AGAIN!!) and I’m totally ‘in the zone’ now!

    Am just back from my usual weekly visit to my amazing local charity shop (all clothes 99p) to find that they’ve reduced their kids section to 4 items for 99p!! (got some amazing bargains for my two daughters).

    BUT, as I was going through the racks, I saw SO much stuff that made me think of you and I was literally saying in my head ‘Ooh Jillian would love this, wow bet Jillian would make this fab!’ Actually wished I could send you a bag o’thrifts from England!

    Anyway, keep up the fab work! Looking forward to each new refashion/post! X

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    • Hi there, Nic, I am so envious of your cheap prices. I had a wonderful time op-shopping in London, Brighton, and Storrington when I visited a couple of years ago. It was very frustrating being limited by my already bulging and over-weight suitcases. Here in Sydney, Australia we too have a great many “op-shops” but the prices are so much higher and have been rising considerably the last couple of years. It is becoming difficult to find dresses under $10, coats tend to be $20 and up. Even blouses, tops, pants, skirts, etc. are rarely under $7. It all adds up and my yearly tally has risen to over $2,000. Of course this includes many items bought for granddaughters, daughter-in-law, and assorted friends, as well as many gift items. Many of the items are brand new, often still have their original tags, and every so often I find a designer label garment with an original price of hundreds of dollars. Keeping that in mind, the amount spent is not excessive at all…but one still has to be able to afford it, of course. I have not yet added up the 2015 purchases. It will be interesting to see if my resolution of cut back has actually eventuated. When I look at the mountain of tags to be added up, I somehow doubt it.

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  11. Doesn’t look like the same item! It’s all about having “the eye!” Congratulations!
    It’s funny, I have always enjoyed seeing you display “the remake” in front of your rack of clothing waiting to be freed from ugliness, however the “white thing” does give a more professional look about the presentation. I like both! 🙂 Jillian

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  14. I am following your adventures with great interest and hope to emulate some of your ideas. After all, “imitation is the greatest form of flattery”, is it not? BTW, I own a very similar little brooch as the one featured in your post. It was a little treasure I found more than 30 years ago. May I share a bit of my own op-shopping history in case you (and some readers?) find it interesting? My hunter/gatherer adventure has mainly taken place in Sydney, Australia where I first discovered my talent for “recycling” in 1966 when I was young and newly married…and very poor. Along the way, other places have featured on my treasure hunts, including some wonderful charity shops in England. In those 50 years (I cannot how time has flown) my treasures have been many and varied. One spin-off activity has been my hobby of refinishing/restoring old/vintage furniture but I don’t do much of that nowadays. Old age, and loss of a workshop are to blame. All my family and friends have benefited from my finds, and related activities, in one way or another. I had the luck to always have at least one excellent op-shop near my place of employment . A couple of times I worked at locations that were blessed with several great op shops; in my lunch hour I used to go to a different shop every day of the week. Truth be told, I did spend far too much money when faced with such temptations. All those small amounts do add up! Now that I am an old owl in retirement (I was a librarian) I get withdrawal symptoms when I don’t make it to my favourite local op-shop once a week. I still buy far too many “things” and I have more clothes than I will ever need for the rest of my life. Each New Year, for more years than I care to remember, one of my resolutions has been to cut back on purchases. Will 2016 be the year that I reign in my passion for re-fashion?

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    • Loved reading your history, my interests are very similar, my love of “the hunt” means that I am chockers too. I’m in Warrandyte Melbourne. I enjoy my weekly hunt. There are still bargains and treasures out there. There is something about repairing, recycling and upcycling that brings great satisfaction! The only new things I buy are bras, undies, boots and sandals, can never find my size. This really is a way of life. 🙂 Jillian

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  16. I love your big white paper thing, and the outfit is fun and cheerful. I’m really glad I’ll be seeing more posts this year!

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  17. I see lots of tops these days with no hems or edging. The knits have a tendency to curl a little leaving a nice thin edge. You make this look the way it SHOULD look! Nice job.

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  21. I’ve never commented before but this is soooo totally cute & gave me all kinds of inspiration feels! I’m on a weight loss journey and will not–I repeat–will not be purchasing multiple size clothing as my body transforms. Therefore I am looking to you (and your daily posts) to help me get through the months. Thank you for this. Totally hit the mark

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  24. I’m so glad you are back to daily refashions! Now when are you going to hold a workshop or something? I would love to travel to Columbia to attend. Wait til it’s warmer though. I can’t handle this cold either!

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    • Nope. 🙂 It doesn’t fray. 🙂 If I decide it looks too sloppy later, I can whip up a quick little hem though. 🙂

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  27. Love this!!!!! Major score!!! Love seeing all your posts and the new addition of your cool finds are so much fun to see!!

    Thank you!!

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  30. One of the things you do so well is styling – perfect! I would never have thought to chop a robe so this will be on my mind for my next thrift trip! Great color on you!

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  32. ADORABLE refashion. I don’t know how you do it. You see the style in things I couldn’t see. I bought a few things from goodwill and it’s sitting in my refashion pile, just sitting, sitting, sitting. I stare at it and can’t see what I should do with some of those items. Maybe it’s just that you know what will look good on you and go for it, with that imagine in your head. Wish I had that natural ability!

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  33. I knew if we stuck around long enough you’d be back to regular posts! Been a fan since the beginning…love from New Hampshire!

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  34. My first thought was – Twiggy/sixties vibe! Great look for you.

    And I WAS wondering about the backdrop. For something with no colour, no texture, no pattern – it packs a punch!

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  37. LOVE this! The brooch especially! I think the oversized fit suits the season/fabric, and you paired it well with leggings and boots to make it look more sleek.

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  45. This tunic is so cool, you have transformed it. You are so lucky to have access to the thrift shops in your lunch hour. Here in Africa there are not really any thrift shops but we do get all the thrift shop cast offs for sale after they have been sent here in huge bales. Unfortunately in the low density area where I shop things are priced between $5 and $15 dollars, and while I like to help people in their businesses this is just too expensive in my opinion. I have to wait until I go out of town where items are about $1 or $2. So now I’m going to start asking my friends to give me their cast offs and see what I can do with them.
    Good luck with your challenge for 2016 I really enjoy reading your blog.

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  48. Another awesome re-fash and great post. Love your tunic dress, in fact I have owned jumpers like that they were just perfect to snuggle and relax in! Enjoying your regular postings very much, thanks for sharing Karen x

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  51. I’m curious- how often do you go thrifting and how much overall time do you spend thrifting? And has that/will that change with your current year challenge? Love your blog, btw. Thanks for sharing!

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    • I try to hit up a few shops about twice a week. I usually go during my lunch break at work. Lucky me…one of my favorites is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to me. 🙂 If I have time, I’ll really dig, but I’m more likely to just flip through the dresses if I only have a moment. 🙂

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  55. Ha!
    Ok, confession: Been a long time subscriber, but life gets crazy with 3 kids under 5 and trying to build a business so I haven’t been opening the emails in a long time.
    But I absolutely CANNOT resist the word tunic (!!) and my first thought = ‘Whoa!! When did she get this big white thing!?’..
    Then remembered how much I love your writing/sense of humor as I read the post.
    And I stand corrected.
    The GIANT white thing 😉
    So much fun!

    Reply

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