Rebecca’s Mysteriously Censored Reader ReFash

In my last refashion, a question came up that I’m going to address here.

“How do you know when you can turn a garment around and make the back the front of your new refash?”

First off, let’s look at this example by Rebecca:

You inspired me to upcycle some old strange clothes i had in my closet. One of them is this skirt here:

Sorry for the face at the before photo but it was so ugly…

Thank you 🙂

I find it impossible to believe that Rebecca could possibly look anything but very pretty. Therefore, I’m assuming the before pic is indeed Rebecca, and that she didn’t kidnap a lady off the street who was wearing a frumpy frock. It would be a cruel thing indeed to make your kidnapee stand against a wall for a “before” picture and make them watch you refashion their dull dress into your own cute “after” and then just leave them naked and crying in the woods somewhere.

That just wouldn’t be cool, so I’m going to assume that Rebecca didn’t do that. *raises one eyebrow*

CSI storyline aside, This is a great example of how to turn a dress around, both style-wise and literally.

The biggest thing you need to look out for is bust darts. If a piece is heavily tailored to fit in the front, you can take in the darts to reduce the curve to a point, but your task will be much lighter with a piece like Rebecca’s, where the front and the back are tailored (or not) in about the same way.

Another thing to look at is the slope of the shoulders. If the shoulders are situated very far back (think perfect posture), they might look funny and slumpy when turned around. However, if the shoulders are sort of in the middle of your body, they should work fine either way. Most people’s shoulders actually slump forward very slightly, so sometimes this can make your clothes fit better (think of vintage Chanel suits that were the first to really accommodate for how a woman’s shoulders typically are.

I hope this helps answer this question. 🙂

And thanks to Rebecca for your awesome refashion! I love the new V-back. You look lovely.

Cheers!