Hi friends! Before I jump into today’s refashion, I want to thank all of you for your kind words from my last post. They truly mean a lot to me, and I’m overwhelmed by your kindness.
As I said before, I won’t have any additional news on the cancer front until next week. While we wait (and wait…and wait…and wait), let’s do an H&M-inspired Refashion!
When I found this muumuu on the $1 rack at one of my favorite thrift stores, I got pretty excited.
You could even go so far as to say I was quite charmed by it!
Billowy comfy dresses are really trendy right now. If you’re stuck at home, why not opt for comfort?
Housedress chic seems to be everywhere. An example is this Puff-Sleeved Dress by H&M.
I decided to embrace this poufy/flowy aesthetic and make a copycat version (sort of) of this peice.
First, I needed to take my muumuu in a bit.
I didn’t want to lose the billowy-ness of the original though.
I put the muumuu on my dress form, and pinned where I wanted to take in the armpits.
Then, I took it off my dress form and pinned the sides. When working with a flowy garment, it’s easier to make sure everything will line up correctly in the end by pinning it this way, rather than on the form.
I took in each side 3″.
I cut off the excess fabric, tragically losing that solo side pocket.
I promise my very next post will show you how to add side pockets to a dress. I almost did that here, but thought it would be better to break this process down on a dress that didn’t require other refashioning steps.
Don’t hate me.
Next, I needed to raise my hem!
If you compare the H&M dress to my original muumuu, you’ll notice the bodice is considerably shorter, as is the overall length.
Rather than just shortening the bottom tier, I decided to take my dress up from the bodice.
Not only does this help my dress look more like the inspiration piece, it also removes a couple of faded parts from the front (visible in the original “before” pic).
I measured where I thought I wanted the top part to end and marked it with blue tailor’s chalk.
Then, I made a couple of big cuts!
I left a little of the pink fabric on top of the blue tier because I knew it would be easier to reattach that way, rather than cutting and re-gathering the blue tier.
Yes, it would leave a visible seam, but I didn’t think it would be that noticeable.
Let’s put it all back together!
Putting right sides together, I pinned the top back to the skirt.
I stitched it down.
I tried my dress on, and realized it was STILL TOO LONG!
Let’s take it back apart!
Cursing under my breath, I got to ripping. :/
Once the two parts were separated once more, I cut off another 3″ from the top.
I reattached the bottom to the top, just like I did before, only this time I was happy with the length! Huzzah!
Let’s pouf those sleeves!
My inspiration piece has some seriously swole sleeves, and I wanted to emulate that in my refashion.
To do this, I folded over the top part of each sleeve like so:
Then, I pinned it and tacked it down using my sewing machine.
But does it look anything like the H&M Inspiration piece? You tell me!
Poufy sleeves? Check! Billowy fit? Check! Pink? Kinda!
While this isn’t a spot-on copycat, I really like it! And for $1, it’s fun to try a trend I wouldn’t necessarily want to pay full price for.
I wore my new dress for an outdoor socially-distanced beverage with my hubs and our good friend Phillip!
Weco Biergarten is one of the few places we’ve been visiting lately. Masks are required (unless you are at your distanced table to consume your food/beverage), table sizes are limited, just about everything can be done outside, and distancing/sanitization measures are being taken.
I hope this post encourages you to see those thrift store muumuus in a new light!
Cheers!
