Refashionistas

First thing when we get up, we refashion a couple of ladies' garments, then put them on.

prom dress search april 2013kohls

kohls

pennys

this one made a lot of noise...

bloomingdales--calvin kliein

my fav

macys

we bought this one, but maybe not for prom...

macys?? lord&taylor??  this one was very nice

$6 a bag sale

I got this dress in a $6 for all the clothes you can stuff in your bag rummage sale. First I hemmed it, then I cut out the shoulder pads. Lynnis convinced me that the straps that tied around the waist in the back had to go. I decided it needed some red so I bought a thin red belt at TJ Maxx and used part of the cut off straps to make belt loops...and now I'm ready to step out.

the big blue dress

My dress!

Haven starts on hack #2

No school means more time to refashion old clothes.

Friday?

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, roommate Thanksgiving already over, and a large blue dress sitting in my closet ready to be refashioned, I am definitely ready for Turkey Day break.

However, that got me thinking...what exactly are we doing on Friday?  Sitting around in our new outfits?  Eating lots of spaghetti?  Walking the catwalk?  Painting the town red?  Or just making it work?

In other news, I just learned there actually are some interesting crafty/sewing stores in DC and am excited to check them out soon!

Before and After

It first started out as a dress that Lona gave me:

Uhhh...

 Then with the help of Lona, I transformed it into a skirt and vest:

Much better!

My Mom's Starting Outfit

It is time to start the project.

With the jacket

Without the jacket

I miss my sewing machine

and don't want to finish my homework. Instead, some more refashioning inspiration: Of Dreams and Seams.

possible project

Inspiration:  seen at Century 21

raw materials:  bagged at recent rummage sale

do you think it's do-able?

MuMu Makeover

Couldn't wait to get started on this! The mumu I got from Innes definitely qualified as something I would not wear in public.

However, I loved the print which reminded me of fabics I saw on a recent trip to Africa. My concept was to make it into something with a little shape. One mystery was that I ran out of material before I finished what I wanted to do: How could a slimmer dress take just as much or more material? So I cut the ruffle off and stitched together sections of it to form some of the extra fabric I needed and I got a small "quarter" of contrasting fabric to do the interfacing.
Here's what I came up with:

I finished it in time to wear to a rehearsal dinner party for my friend's son on the eve of his wedding. Here I am with my friend Bonnie:

And here's another picture from the event taken by the light of a bonfire:

I am now ready to offer assistance to Haven and got a nice item for her refashionista raw material at a yard sale yesterday that will go well with that tangerine lipstick she has been sporting lately!

found on bag sale day--  check out those feathers!

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if you a re coming to the party at pops and ganggang's on sunday, try to bring along a refashionable find--perhaps even just a "practice piece" maybe we can try out some refashioning techniques! see you there, innes

second try...

i found these today at a nearby for-profit thrift shop. there were LOTS of ethnic tunics with matching harem-y pants. i'll have to go back on discount day (thursdays)!

homemade silk shantung

homemade cotton print (love the fabric!)

i realized after the fact that sleeveless dresses provides significantly less material to work with, so these outfits are not ideal...and dress three wouldn't even zip all the way up in the back! i'll make another foray for fashion later today!

delightfully hideous scratchy two layer fabric--also homemade

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So much potential!

Found a great refashionista item this morning. The print is incredible. What's not to like about topo maps of Trinidad and the Caribbean! However the outfit begs to be redone! Does anyone want this for their challenge? Or must I do this one myself?

this year's challenge!

 

head on out to the nearest thrift shop!

our day-after-thanksgiving challenge has been inspired by the refashionista blog (see rss feed at right)

the idea is that each participant searches for an item of clothing to be re-fashioned into something fun, fitting, and fashionable!  we haven't worked all the details out yet (like, how to swap the items--anonymously?  draw names?)

some suggestions for the clothing:  buy LARGE.  this gives you extra material to work with for maximum innovation.

post your other suggestions here!

i've got three very interesting dresses waiting already....

New Dress

I was inspired to sew a dress as a practice dress for my MOB outfit.
After a search, I found a pattern I liked which was a retro Butterick, from the year of my birth, 1952.

I found some great material with Chinese characters on it. I see the characters for 'person' and 'heart' and 'way' but I haven't deciphered them all yet.

And here is the final product; the first dress I have sewed in many a year!