From maxi dress to fun summer top

I popped into a consignment shop that was new to me and discovered this dress for more than I would normally spend (about $21) but I figured I'd get a cute summer top and a skirt for it. And I could probably do something with the mammoth sleeves as well.

 The first thing I did was get rid of the sleeves, but kept the round yellow neck-line. I love round necklines. (I take terrible photos, sorry.)

 Then I stitched all around to make sure there were no raw edges from cutting.

 Next, I pinned the sides and sewed up to make it fit me better and close up the arm hole a bit. No one wants side boob.

 I could have been more careful with the next part -- where I chopped off the bottom half of the dress. In this picture, I've already cut out the bottom yellow hem, which I needed to finish off the bottom hem of my new shirt. I plan to use this piece to make a simple summer skirt.

So, I took the bottom piece and sewed it to the top. You need to put both pieces right sides together and sew it. I didn't get pics, sorry about that. But here it is inside out after I sewed it.

And here is the finished product. I actually work this to work yesterday with some black ankle-length pants and did get some compliments, so I'd say it was a success.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Fun with shoes! Yep, refashioned shoes.

I'm not a big shoe girl. I stick with the basics, black heels, brown heels and none of these deviate too far from the penny loafer style I grew up wearing.

Last year, I saw that someone posted about painting old shoes to make them new again. So I gave it a shot. I started with these fine, but typical for me, shoes.

Not bad, but how many pairs of black heeled-loafers do I need?

 I didn't go in with a plan, but I had some pale pink spray paint that I could use. I covered the heels and the buckle with newspaper to keep them black.

Taped and papered.

  And I sprayed pained them. This is how they looked:

 Not bad, but I went back and pained the heels and the buckle too.

Painted and ready to go.

However...I wore them once and it was a disaster. The paint got all crackly where the shoes bend as I walk -- across the top part, highly visible.

Not the look I'm going for.

So, back to the refashion drawing board - I decided to decoupage with fabric. I mean, they couldn't get worse, right? I used newspaper to make a pattern for each section of my shoe -- one for each side, plus the top. I used the paper pattern to cut out the fabric and I used Mod Podge to glue the fabric to my shoe.

Newspaper pattern.

Mod Podge and a foam brush.

There's a seam in the back, it's hardly visible.

I left the heels pink just for fun, but I used nail polish to color the buckle, 'cause the pink didn't really work. Now I have a new pair of non-black/non-brown shoes. I have worn these twice with no problems -- no fraying, no cracking, etc. I will definitely do this again.