A New Old Dress

Time to Complete: 1 hour
Sewing Machine Required? Yes
Difficulty: Difficult

I've had this dress since before my refashioning days, and it has always been one of my favourites. 

Unfortunately, it's getting old and tired, and it doesn't fit me nearly as well in my twenties as it did in my teens! Enter this massive piece:

Ok, so it doesn't look like much...yet

Not only is the print almost identical to my old favourite, the fabric is also the same cozy stretch knit! I knew at once that I was going to turn this too-big piece into a new version of my beloved but worn-out dress. To get there, I was going to have to make it much smaller. 

I started by putting it back on inside-out and measuring in from the sides how far I wanted to take it in.

I have a full handful of fabric on either side.

I marked the two narrowest points with safety pins, then took the dress off and lay it out on the floor. I knew I would probably have to take it in in several stages, so I wasn't concerned about getting it right all at once.

I drew the new shape of the dress onto the fabric with a charcoal pencil...

...stitched along the lines...

And tried it on again. There was still a lot of fabric bulk inside, since I hadn't trimmed the excess yet, but I wanted to make sure I was on the right track. I was! I just needed to take it in more under the arms.

I trimmed off the excess...

...drew a new line to take the sleeves and underarms in and stitched it down...

Then trimmed again. I tried the dress on again.

So far, so good, but the neck was too wide.

This photo gives an idea of where I stitched, but I redrew the line after taking the picture and forgot to take another. Just imagine the line curving better to follow the line of the shoulder.

The final step was to take a little bit of length off the bottom.

Nice slippers...

I hemmed the raw edge and did a quick press of all the new seams even though it didn't seem to need it much. Here's the end result:

Aside from the long sleeves, it's my old favourite reborn!

Criticisms: I shouldn't have cut the excess out of the underarms before adjusting the neck, since narrowing the collar also changed the fit of the sleeves a bit. Now it's just the tiniest bit too tight and I can't readjust because I cut out the extra fabric. Oh well, lesson learned!

Banana Cream Pie Dress

Time to Complete: 1 hour
Sewing Machine Required? Yes
Difficulty: Difficult

Let's take a look at today's contender, shall we?

I look like a 19th century school marm.

This dress has been sitting in my refashion closet for nearly a year, waiting for me to find just the right mood in which to tackle it. Today was the day. It doesn't look very impressive in this picture, but let's look a little closer at that collar detailing.

Pretty!

The scrollwork on that lace netting won my heart when I encountered this piece, and it is still my favourite part of the dress. To make it really shine, I knew I needed to downplay the rest of this banana-hued beast.

There followed a flurry of chopping.

Bye-bye, monster shoulder pads!

It's bigger than my face!

So long, useless side-tie thingies!

Handy hook-and-eye closure, you can stay.

With those unnecessary bits removed, it was time to make a big decision: how much of the skirt to cut off? I decided to chop around the fifth button down from the waist.

I've made a few crooked hems recently, and I decided it was time to tidy up my act and do something properly, for once, rather than my usual cut-and-pray method. I laid the dress out on the floor and measured down from the waist, marking around the skirt with a charcoal pencil.

Use charcoal for pale fabrics and a bar of hand soap for dark fabrics!

Then I unbuttoned the skirt and cut along my charcoal line.

Chomp!

The next step was to fold, pin, and iron my new hem. I took my time to avoid wrinkles and keep the line even.

Lots o' pins!

Then I stitched down my new hem. 

I wasn't finished yet, though. The length of the skirt was fixed, and the shoulder pads were gone, but the sleeves of this dress were still massive and made me look very top-heavy. I needed to take them in. 

Out with the pencil!

I marked the line I wanted to sew (a rough guess based on putting the dress on and pinching in the fabric under the armpits) on both sides. Then I stitched it down. I tried it on to make sure the fit was good, then cut away the excess material with my pinking shears.

Toothy cuts!

Finally, this dress was complete! 

Cute!

Not to brag, but that hemline is dead even. It really makes a difference when I take the time to get it right! I wore this dessert-inspired dress with some navy tights, my favourite braided belt, and a pendant necklace. What do you think?

Criticisms: The skirt ended up being a touch shorter than I like. I was hoping for something I could wear to work, and this is shorter than I'd be comfortable with. I did look through my scrap bin for something I could use to extend the length of the skirt, perhaps in a coordinating colour, but I didn't have anything I liked. Looks like this is destined to be a date nights and days out dress!

Denim Skirt

Time to Complete: 45 mins
Sewing Machine Required? Yes
Difficulty: Difficult

Until about grade ten, I was known for wearing ill-fitting jeans and department store fleece zip-ups. I blame having attended an independent elementary school with a dress code for not learning how to dress myself before then. One of my first "cool" pieces of clothing was a denim skirt that I absolutely loved--and have long since outgrown.

But when I saw this denim shirt, I immediately thought "skirt!"

Eek.

This was a pretty common look a few decades ago, so these sorts of square, embroidered denim shirts are easy to find in second-hand stores. They don't have much staying power as shirts, but the very shapelessness that makes them unpleasant tops is perfect for turning them into skirts!

I pulled the skirt up to my waist and buttoned it up as far as I could. This gave me an idea of how the final skirt would fit.

Already getting better...

Now I chopped off the top of the shirt, just below the sleeves.

I was sad to lose one of the flowers in the chop.

This left just the tricky process of shaping the skirt, during which I apparently took only one picture.

Bear with me...

Ok, so what I did here was pull the skirt up to where I wanted it to sit, then I pinched in the sides and pinned each one, doing my best to keep it equal. Since the skirt would button up the front, I could make it perfectly fitted and know that I'd still be about to get in and out of it. 

Then I sewed on an angle from each pinned point to the bottom hem of the skirt (sorry, no pictures!). I tried it on again and had to go back and take it in just a touch more along each side. Finally, I folded over the top and stitched it down to finish the raw edge.

And here's the finished product!

Fun!

I will try to do another one of these with more pictures of the shaping process. It is easier to show than tell. Or come check out Refashion Without Rules at the Prince George Public Library on March 6th (more information here)!

Criticisms: I did end up needing to safety-pin the skirt closed between the top and second buttons, since it was gaping a little. A proper fix would be to add a button hole and stitch on a new button to close the gap--but on this blog I'm all about getting away with the easy fix wherever I can, and nobody can see the safety pin!

Muppet Sweater

Time to Complete: 15 mins
Sewing Machine Required? No
Difficulty: Easy

Here's a super easy no-sew refashion! All you need is an oversize sweater--either one deliberately made to be oversize, or one that's just a few sizes too big. I started with this one.

Something about this looks familiar...

Bad: Stifling collar.Good: So soft! Lovely colour.

Fix: Cut out the collar.

The terrycloth-like feel of this sweater and its bright colour (sorry, the photo doesn't do the emerald green justice), immediately put me in mind of the Muppets! Beloved childhood characters that they are, I didn't necessarily want to go out dressed as one so I needed some way to make this sweater a bit more grown-up. I decided to change the neckline.

Chop!

Turns out that was all it needed. With that stifling collar out of the way, this sweater became much more fun. I cut it even wider than shown in the picture, so I can wear it off-the-shoulder if I choose.

Cozy

In a spectacular fit of clumsiness, I dropped a piece of toast and egg on myself right after taking this picture. Since this sweater has some very specific directions about washing and drying, it will be a while before I get to enjoy it. Still, for the few minutes I was able to wear it I was cozy and comfy!

Criticisms: I could have gone bolder with the off-the shoulder, but I prefer to cut too little and go back later to readjust, rather than cut too much and ruin the project!

Midwinter Floral Dress

Time to Complete: 30 mins
Sewing Machine Required? Yes
Difficulty: Medium

Exciting news! Refashion Without Rules will be presenting at the Prince George Public library on March 6, so if you enjoy following my blog, be sure to come by and check out some live demonstrations! You can find more information here.

To celebrate (and prepare), I've been doing a lot of refashions. Today we'll go over a very simple dress refashion. I started with this piece I got from a coworker:

My face says it all...

Good: Pretty fabric, cute puffed shoulders

Bad: Length, waistline sits below my natural waist, slightly too large

Fix: New hem. Everything else can be fixed with a belt.

Snip! 

As I was shortening this dress, I noticed that the original hem was quite uneven. I usually measure from the bottom when I want to shorten something, but with this one I had to measure down from the waist (and hope that the waist was level!)

Fold, iron, and pin to get a nice, smooth hem

I folded the raw edge under, ironed it, and pinned the new hem in place, then I stitched it down. That was it! I accessorized with a belt, to hide the fact that the waistline was in a weird place, and threw on a cardigan because it was chilly out. 

Voila!

Criticisms:  You might notice that the hem is a bit uneven--turns out the waistline wasn't perfectly straight either, so I ended up with a bit of a weird fit. This is something I could go back and fix with my dress form, and I may make a follow-up post to do just that.

BEFORE

AFTER