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

Tunic with Pockets

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

I am very excited to announce that I will be running a refashioning program at the Prince George Public Library on March 6. In preparation, I've challenged myself to make two new refashions per week from now until then. This post marks the first of this new era of refashioning for me (sort of), so let's kick things off!

I chose this frumpy frock for my first fashion rehash.

Meh...

Good: POCKETS!!! good condition, fun buttons
Bad: Length, gaping arm holes, general frumpiness

Fix: Shorten it (a lot); take in the top (3 options)

Option 1: Gather beneath the bustline

Option 2: Take it in along the side seam

Option 3: Shorten the straps

I chose Option 2 for three reasons. First, because I wanted this refashion to work as a tutorial for a basic dress overhaul. Second, I didn't like how Option 1 cluttered the clean line of this dress. Third, Option 3 seemed really tricky, and I wasn't sure I had the patience to figure it out.

So it was out with my trusty Gruella to mark those new side seams with a pin or two.

Just a wee bit

Then I stitched along the imaginary line I'd drawn to the waistline of the dress. If you're not confident eyeballing it, then draw the line in with chalk or a bar of soap before you stitch.

That left me with just the length to deal with. I put the dress on again an tried to decide how long I wanted it. I decided on a tunic length, thinking that the dress' stiff fabric and triangular shape would give it a cool mod 60's look.

Big chop!

Then I turned it inside-out and folded over the bottom hem once, ironing and pinning to keep it in place. Usually I'll fold the bottom hem twice, but this fabric was pretty thick, and I could see from the unfinished edges on the inside of the dress that it wasn't going to fray.

Iron the hem down...

And pin to keep it there.

I'll often skip the pinning, but again, I'm trying to be a better teacher and do things a little more properly.

Then it was back to the sewing machine.

New hem magic!

After that, it was a simple matter of turning this once-dowdy dress into a fun outfit.

Fun?

Lovin' the pockets! And the length ended up just right (always a bit of a guess, the way I do things).

Now I'm going to add a self-review section to the end of my posts. My refashions don't end up perfect, and I want to be honest about that so that if you face challenges, you don't give up!

Criticisms: I took this dress in too much along the sides. You'll notice that there's a bit of straining in the buttons. It's an easy fix; simply undo the too-tight side seams and re-stitch them a bit looser fitting. I hate having to re-do something, though, so maybe I'll just live with it and then pass this bepocketed piece off to a slightly smaller somebody.