Hey Friends. I have a secret to share with you.
Mr. Refashionista and I were recently in Ireland for what ended up being a very short honeymoon.
As our flight landed, what I’m going to refer to as, “The Situation” (that’s what they’re calling it there), began to escalate. Social distancing. Travel bans. We got to see what it looks like when the world shuts down from a really unique perspective. As Brian’s dad said when he picked us up from the airport, “At least you can tell your friends what it was like being in Europe during a filming of The Twilight Zone.”
By the time we were able to re-book our flights home after a sleepless night with our travel agent & airlines, all the pubs in Ireland were closed.
The streets of Dublin were empty. I would liken this to all the Waffle Houses in the South being closed. Meaning, It’s all about to hit the fan.
I had scheduled blog posts to go live in our absence, and had worked double-time to make refashions to wear in Ireland that I was going to show you guys when we returned. I was planning on doing Thrifting in Ireland blog posts and videos.
Needless to say, that’s not happening now (but hopefully will later).
I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad for me. The Situation is hurting others much more than it’s hurting Brian and I. My friends with precarious health issues are literally scared for their lives. My service industry friends can’t work, and most don’t get paid leave. My small business owner friends are worried they might not make it through all of this.
All of that trumps Mr. Refashionista and I not getting to learn Falconry at a castle in County Clare.
I, like most of the world, am watching the news regularly, my stomach in knots…trying to keep my anxiety at bay. Having to isolate myself from my friends makes this even harder (I’m an extrovert, in case you can’t tell).
That’s why I plan on using this time tucked away at home for creative projects, and I hope you’ll join me. Let’s all try to make something beautiful during this ugly time. Whether it’s a refashion, a chunky crochet afghan, or a really good frittata, let’s all bring something into the world that wasn’t there before.
Now…for the promised Tie-Back Top Refashion:
I’m a sucker for soft fabrics. When I find them in my thrifting adventures, I always try to scoop them up!
I especially love it when I find pieces in cozy fabrics that work well as yoga tops (It’s hard to be Zen in burlap).
This dress may not look like a yoga top at first glance…
…but just you wait!
This $1 thrifted knit dress was soooo comfy! I almost left it as-is as something to pad around the house/binge watch period dramas with strong female leads in.
That is until I came up with a much more fun idea for it! I would turn it into a tie-back yoga top!
First, I cut off a hefty chunk of the length.
Then I made another cut up the back!
I cut a v-shape out of the back, rather than just making a straight line since the original dress flares out a lot– something I didn’t want my top to do.
I folded the back of the neck of my top over by 1″.
Then added a pin and stitched it down.
This refashion could totally be a no-sew as well!
If you don’t have a sewing machine (and don’t want to hand stitch), just use a strong fabric glue!
I tied the bottom of my new top…
And THAT IS IT!
While the front looks lovely, the party really is in the back!
If you’re not comfortable with having your back on display, you can always layer a tank top underneath this top, or start with a garment that’s a little bigger on you and overlap the neck more than 1″ for more coverage.
I styled my new top with high waisted leggings and my favorite TOMs!
While I can’t hop off to one of my favorite yoga studios at the moment, there are lot of great free Yoga workouts on YouTube right now. My favorite is Yoga With Adrienne, which I highly recommend if you’re feeling uneasy, or just want a nice uplifting workout. 🙂
Friends, I hope you’re all staying safe & well. We’re all going to get through this together.
*virtual elbow bump*
You have no idea how refreshing it is to see your post. Thank you so much for giving all of us a moment of happy.
Your blog had been a source of comfort and creative inspiration to me for a long time, I’m so glad you’re here! We all need to support each other in this world right now, and I just wanted to thank you for doing your part to lift spirits and help to stave off claustrophobic insanity. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you for making me smile today! Much needed positive vibes!
Thanks for continuing to entertain with your humor, craftiness, and positive attitude. This made me smile this morning.
Geertje,
You are an inspiration! I am so glad you decided to leave a comment on Jillian’s blog. *Waving hello to you from Texas.*
Tambra Nicole
So glad to ‘meet’ a fellow countrywoman (landgenoot) loving and doing refashions here, Geertje! Hope you and your husband wil be ok. As I hope for all Refashionista-lovers here, from Spain, India and from wherever you are. May Jillian’s beautiful refashions inspire us in our own creativity the coming months!
You can use that wide bottom part you cutoff as an infinity scarf!
Much encouragement and strength! In Spain, Europe, we are also confined. The entire population is confined by government obligation to prevent contagion.
Thank you, for inspiration, i follow you for a long time but my englisch is not that mutch to easy comment on your blog. But now, i take the naughty shoes on , its a Dutch eh speak word/expresion eh google helps me I enjoy a lot with your blog, sometimes i read your entire blog like a book. I refash also a lot of clothes to myself. We are in the samen Situation now. I think my husband and i will stuck at home for a long time becouse his health. Excuse me for the horible gramatica. I hope you will post a lot of refashions the comming time. Greatings from the Nederlands
Your English is FAR better than my Dutch! 🙂 Thank you for making it across a language barrier to leave your kind words. 🙂 Keep on refashing! We’ll all get through this together. 🙂
I love your genius artistry in recreating wearable items from cast offs. It is always fun to read your blogs. I would love to be able to repurpose old clothing. Thanks for your messages.
Yas! Great refashion and great supportive post, thank you. Sorry to hear your honeymoon was affected, so many people are impacted by this.
Re YouTube yoga, I also enjoy Five Parks Yoga from Erin Sampson. She does some outdoor classes and some from Costa Rica so there’s nice backgrounds to enjoy too.
You are such a ray of sunshine in dark moments…. Thanks for all you do, thanks for having such a great attitude during ‘the situation’! Congrats on your nuptials! Mr. Refashionista is absolutely adorable, nice catch for both of you!!!!
Just love this restyle… I cannot say that the dress looked at all frumpy on you… tho it was a bit wide. I expected you to trim and down and wear it but you surprised me… So glad…! The end result is super! And beautifully feminine!
Congratulations on your marriage! Huge elbow bump!
I think that your idea for this refashion was great. That is an lovely looking fabric. No wonder you did not hesitate to choose it. Good job on this!
I am frankly just glad you are home safe. You are young, there will be other times to cross the pond. How wonderful that you will be able to return to visit both Ireland and family. Lucky you!!
Stay safe….
I feel you on the “situation”. I am a special education teacher in Indiana and we are closed indefinitely. I miss my kiddos, worry about them, and am trying to navigate through e-learning with students that have multiple and severe deficits. They can’t even understand why we are not in school. We as adults will get through this, it’s our children that I worry about the most. I keep the faith and do a lot of face time!!! Stay safe and healthy.
I love reading your posts – you have the best ideas. I have some of the Lularoe dresses that are seriously pilling and I may use one of them for this.
This is just the cutest top! Will definitely change the way I’ve been looking at thrift garments. BTW, I keep meaning to ask you about your ironing board cover. Mine is getting rather tatty and, considering I’m looking at YOUR ironing board cover, I wondering if you’d made it! LOL Looking forward to Honeymoon II. <3
We had a trip to Ireland scheduled for mid-April, which is now postponed indefinitely. We all need to hang in there!
I enjoy seeing your creative projects and liked hearing about your trip! It was most unfortunate to have been cut short but I truly appreciated your attitude! More people should be so kind because you are right – there are worse things than a canceled trip, happening to people out there. Also loved that you put out the challenge to “create something beautiful in these ugly times.” INSPIRATIONAL and I hope everyone takes it to heart! Keep up the good work!!
Congrats on getting married! Hopefully your airline can offer you a couple of tickets so you get to actually enjoy a honeymoon. Looking forward to your vacation outfits.
*elbow bump*
darling cute top! you make the refashions look so simple!
xo eva
Thank you! I’m trapped inside with 2 kids, a cat, a puppy, and a husband, I need wonderful creative distractions like this! ❤️
I second Marty’s suggestion! I find it difficult to find nice things in larger sizes in thrift stores, so I buy new more often than I like.
I think using this time to make something especially nice in whatever artsy crafty medium make you happy is a wonderful idea maybe we can even show you some of our work oh you can tell is very late where I am from I am overusing emojis Sorry about your honeymoon. I am just so happy you are back sharing your refashions with us all we missed you.
Clever, clever, clever! Your posts are inspiring.
So sorry to hear about your honeymoon, falconry sounds awesome! I hope you get back to it soon. I’m used to working from home as I did it for 8 years prior to my current job. I am EXTREMELY lucky that I am able to do so. I’m also very happy that my parents moved to be closer to me a few years ago after several decades in Florida. They are 75 and 81 and I worry about them having to go out. Oh, loved the refashion too!
Your shirt looks very soft and comfy. Great refashion. I use the website doyogawithme dot com for my home yoga. I hope you are able to finish your honeymoon trip sooner than later. I’ll also be digging through my fabric to see what I can do in this time with the situation. Stay safe.
My spouse and I are more introverted than extroverted. Our teenager is not. He is struggling.
Remember that old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times?” What did we do?! 😉
Seriously, though, the situation is, as you point out, not the same for everyone. I love your idea to celebrate our creativity during this time of social limitations, but I also would ask that those who have the means, a phone, the internet, to reach out to friends and family who are in a more precarious place with regards to their health and the situation.
Extroverts need people–we’re still here! Call us, have a visit over the phone. Email us, text us, message us. We haven’t left you and we still need your joyful spirits.
Love the top, hon! You look adorable in it!
Hi, I needed this this morning. I’ve been following your blog on and off for a few years now and I’m glad y’all are ok. The top looks amazing btw. Please stay safe and if you want to share your frittata recipe Id be down to cook it. I have a ton of eggs and not much else in the way of meat down here so I’m about to get creative.
Wait wait wait! you said honeymoon! CONGRATULATIONS!
You are so awesome. Not only creative but uplifting in your words. Keep posting and refashioning . As you said, we’ll get through it together. PS I love the top and love that you do yoga!
I am so sorry about your short Honeymoon, maybe someday you can go back.
I am so sad over what is happening, your father is right it seems like the Twilight Zone, I am old enough to remember the original series, very creepy like what is going on now.
Your refashion is adorable, totally love soft fabrics.
Thank-you for sharing with us.
Stay well, eat healthy drink wine and more wine, giggle and be happy.
Catherine
So cute and original! I’m fortunate to be retired so the only thing that propels me out of the house is cabin fever, and I’m working hard on that…
(Long time reader, first time commenter) First of all, let me say… I’m so glad you’re back! You were missed! And I have a bunch of dresses just like the “before” on this refashion, from my pre-retirement days, so you know I’m going to be giving this one a whirl. Keep the posts coming!!!
As always awesome re-fashion, sorry about your honeymoon, hope you can get back to it soon. I live in the UK & both myself & my hubby have health issues so we’re avoiding others isn’t a problem for us because we’re housebound. But the whole situation is extremely worrying, keep well & safe x
As I have not been going out as normal –I have been sorting out all the stuff I have stored away like clothes to refashion, books to read and items to paint etc
Always like your ideas
It is people like you who will brighten someones day during The Situation! So sorry you couldn’t finish your trip. It sounded amazing. Put it on the cards for another day and then while you are in Europe, pop on into Bavaria, Germany for a tasty glass (the Germans make great beer!) with me 🙂 You could do a Dirndl refashion whilst here.
Hi, I am a French woman living in India, and I should have been in France right now, with my family, and I was about to book the flight when “the situation” started. So with my partner I decided to stay in India, especially because I was afraid to not be able to reenter. I have a teenage daughter and I could not imagine to be separated from her in such circumstance. So now, I am a primary and middle school teacher and in the state where I live, all schools are closed since Monday, and also cinema, swimming pools, gyms, theaters, etc. Unfortunatly many of my students have no access to internet, and we cannot organize work to do at home. But I still go to school because we were working on a play, so there are costumes, propos, decors to make, even if there is no students. In my district there was no outbreak till now, and we are not restricted in our moves, I mean locally, unlike in France or elsewhere. Thankfully I have accumulated a big pile of stitching repairs and I am never short in craft ideas, so I keep myself busy. All these activities are helping me to keep high spirit. Gill, thank you thousands times for your frequent blog post. I feel we all need to occupy our mind positively, these days.
So sorry about your trip, and I hope that you make it back soon. Thanks for posting this refashion. I actually have some dresses like this, and I think that you just found me an activity that I can do with my daughters while we quarantine! Many thanks, and stay safe and sane through this mess.
I enjoy your refashions. I would enjoy seeing a refashion for a woman that is not tiny. Perhaps you could “do a do” for a friend?
I enthusiastically agree!
You are such a bright spot of inspiration in our day. Stay healthy and dream of more travels ahead. All the best to you and yours!
Adorable top and I love yoga with Adrienne. My yoga studio is live streaming their classes you still have to pay but it’s such a blessing to workout virtually with friends. I have a sweater that needs some help. Not sure how to do it. Can you possibly help me if I send a photo?
Me like!
Thank you for this uplifting post! I always enjoy your posts but especially enjoyed this one. You are right, we need to take this opportunity to make something beautiful and make the best of the situation.
Love your ingenuity!! We just had to cancel our barge trip in Ireland—so hearing your story makes me thankful that we were able to postpone it until next year!!
Thank you for your wonderful posts!!
My boyfriend just asked me to use The Situation (and our close quarters) to teach him some rudimentary yoga, so thank you for the inspiration AND the link!!
Thank you for being there! Love your posts and you always lift all of our spirits. Be well!