Rick-Rack Paddy Wack

There's not much to say about this one -- it was too easy. It's your basic skirt to dress refashion, but in this case, the waist of the skirt wasn't elastic, so I had to open it up a bit to make it fit around my chest.

Here's the skirt as purchased:

$6.99 -- not too bad, it's a good quality Talbots skirt.

One side has a zipper, so I left that partially unzipped, and on this side, I opened the seam to match. This gave me the breathing room I needed.

I tucked in the sides a bit at a angle, otherwise, the top would go straight across -- that would be weird. The only matching material I had for straps was this rick rack so it would have to do for now. Not my favorite, but I wanted to wear this dress right away.

I sewed up those hems around what are now the arm holes and was all set.

I couldn't find my camera so had to settle for an iPod photo. I'll do better next time.

Before and After - easy-peasy.

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.

When a Refashion Fails

Not every refashion is a win. The bummer of it is, sometimes you don't even realize until the very end, after you've spent nearly 3 hours in your un-air-conditioned sewing room where it's 87 degrees and all along you think you've got a winner on your dress form. Here's the story:

At a glance, you might think this was a win...it's not.

I bought this plan blue dress several months ago and set it aside after taking a few inches off the bottom. It has a matching belt, but I'm not sure where I put it.

Meh. I dig the neckline though.

Because it's so hot, I figured those sleeves had to go. I also wanted to do something interesting with the back, maybe a conservative racer-back, just slightly cut-in, so I chopped away and then turned the dress inside out on my dress form. That's when I saw this:

What's this I see around the neckline? Something I can use as a round collar, I think.

I dig that look of dress or tops with a round collar. So I decided that's what I'd do with this piece of materials. I started to take it off using a seam ripper but that was taking too long so I just yanked it off.

Don't worry, this will be on the inside.

Next, I cleaned up those frayed edged by rehemming all along my new collar. Then, I pinned it on the wrong side of the dress, around the neck line. That way, when flipped to the correct side, those seams would be invisible. (See...even with a fail, I learn or practice a new trick.)

Then, I just sewed that in place and turned the dress right-side out and back on the dress form. My technique of ripping left some frayed edges visible, so I pinned the collar in such a way so that my top-stitching would hide that.

Unsightly frayed edges.

Top-stitched and back on the form.

Nearly finished...or so I thought.

Now, when I see it in pictures, it's totally obvious that the arm holes are too big. And the dress needs to be taken in on the sides. Why I didn't see this from the get-go, I'm not sure. See, when I cut off the sleeves I was a bit too ambitious. This left the sides of the dress gaping. You can see that in the picture above. I didn't see, and I thought, "This dress is adorable!" So I put it on. There are no pictures of this because I was a sweaty mess.  But I pinned where the dress needed to be taken in and tried to tighten up the sleeve hole.

ALSO, while the neckline looks cute on the dress form, it didn't work in reality. The "straps" were too wide. The collar should extend past the sleeve part. So, back to the machine, I narrowed the sleeve area so the collar went past the edge.

Narrower arms so the collar extends past.

The arm holes are still such that I think I run the risk of -- side-boob!! EWWWW.

No one wants to see side-boob. Well, I don't.

I also don't like the way it hangs on me. So that's that. I didn't throw it out though. I'm not 100% giving up on this, but I don't think it will serve it's final days as a dress. Maybe a casual top. We'll see.

Old Shirt to New Shirt - A New Favorite

So, still reeling from my unsuccessful shopping trip, I hit Pinterest for refashioning inspiration. I came across one for refashioning a collared-button down into a cute summer top. Love it! So easy, required very little sewing and hardly any precision (thank goodness).

Charles had just added some stuff to our Goodwill donation bag, but I wasn't feeling the brown checkers that his shirts afforded me. So, off to my own closet, where I knew I had a shirt that I hadn't worn in years, but for some reason never got rid of.  Here's the before and after since I didn't take too many pics of the process.

Before: I haven't worn this in years.

Ready to wear again!

I cut off the sleeves first.  Then the collar. With it pinned to my dress form, I cut straight across the front and back. I then pinned over about a inch to make a casing for the ribbon. Below, you can see that I've already sewn the casing and put it back on my dress form.

I reached into my ribbon stash and found just enough cream satin ribbon to complete this refashion. You can use a safety pin to thread the ribbon through the casing, but because for some reason I had one handy in my sewing room, I used a large bobby pin.

So it goes in one side, starting at the front, through the button area, around the back and back to where you started. Here, tie it into a bow, or whatever fashion you prefer.

Tada! That's it. Shirt done. I tried to not bother Charles, who was working, so I took my own pictures.

Uhm, I can't really do a selfie.

But then I bothered him for a normal picture.

This would be cuter if I fixed myself up or something.

Yes, This Time I'm Wearing a Sheet

I went shopping yesterday -- with no success. Gift cards in hand, I hit The Loft, The Gap, and Banana Republic (they are all in a row, I didn't go out of my way.) I spent the most time -- 15 minutes -- in The Loft, bypassing the front of the store and heading right to the sale racks. Even on sale, there was nothing I wanted to spend my money (uh, gift cards) on. Worse luck in the other two stores, I headed home and hit my sewing room.

I pulled out this sheet I got at a thrift store last year. $2.99

I wanted to make a circle-neck halter -- I have been wanting to make one for a year now. I only wish I had a pattern, or a shirt to copy, but I didn't and I just dove in.

First, the collar:

Eh, good enough.

Then, I cut out to rectangles of fabric -- no pictures of this. I short of used a t-shirt as a size guide. I angled the sides of the front one for the arm area. Then, I pinned to them to my dress form and pinned in some pleats on the front. 

I added a casing to the back and added elastic to allow me to have some "give" when putting it on and off. It also helps hold it up. 

Here's where it goes downhill and is a lesson in planning in advance.

Mistake 1: I wish I had thought ahead about how I wanted the back of the halter collar to look. I thought I could make another half-circle, but then I realized I wouldn't get it over my head. I grabbed an old necklace -- white beads -- to see if I could use it somehow. Nah.

So, I added straps down the back, because I really wanted to keep that neckline in the front.

The other problem -- when I took it off the dress form and tried it on, the back was way too low -- side-boob may work for Miley Cyrus, but not on me. I had to rip out the seams on each side and redo them to bring up the back.

Lots of extra fabric -- the problem with not measuring.

This shirt is full of flaws. The neckline is crooked, the fit isn't great. But hey - it was a $2.99 sheet; I still have lots left to make something else. And I'd probably wear this to Farmer's Market, or around the house on a weekend. Not too bad. Oh - I think I'll add 2 little pockets to the bottom front. That might be cute.

Sunglasses inside 'cause I look like crappy-crap.

Hello 80's, Welcome to 2013

I snagged this hot item for $3.50 a couple of weeks ago. It's a total 80's wrap dress. I'm not big on collars, but every now and then I'll try it out.Obviously, I wasn't intending on wearing this dress as-is.

Hello 80's, I've missed you.

Check it out all buttoned up -- dig the high collar.

First, I put it on the dress form inside out, and pinned it up to take it in a bit. It only needed to be taken in above the waist. I also cut off the sleeves but did it so that I wouldn't have to sew these -- I cut close enough to the original seam.

Taking in the sides

Sleeves cut close to the seam, so no re-sewing needed.

I also took off several inches from the bottom. I just eye-ball this step, so there is no picture. Also, I'm embarrassed to admit this, I had to give myself a little more breathing room by moving the wrap buttons about an inch. All I had to do was snip them off and resew them into place by hand. And ta-da, and updated dress that I can wear to work.

BEFORE

AFTER