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.

 

Scalloped Crop Top

I'm baa-aack...



Oh, Moriarty, I can only aspire to be as interesting as you are. Not that life has been boring--what with buying a house, starting a new degree program, getting married, undertaking adventures in gardening for the first time, and working two jobs, I've had more than enough to keep me entertained. And I swear, I have been refashioning, too! I just never took any pictures (bad blogger!).

But now I'm back at it. I finally found a way to stack the living room furniture to work as my tripod--turns out I just need the couch, the piano stool, and four books. No biggy.

Today is mightily cold outside, for all that it's gloriously sunny, so I wanted something to cozy up in. Fortunately, I had just purchased this lovely knit piece yesterday.

GACK!

Some people love turtlenecks. I am not one of them. They make me gag. So I knew what the first thing I wanted to do was! I took off the sweater and put it on the floor.

One little problem. See it?

There was one thing complicating matters before I could just hack away at that neckline with my scissors--you see that line going up from the collar? That's a zipper. I decided that since it didn't go too low, I would reverse the front and back of the original sweater and make it a V-neck. Then I got to hacking.

Two chops and the zipper is history!

Then I cut around the front (now back) of the collar to remove the rest of the turtleneck.

Strangle me no more, vile zip!

I decided that I didn't like the length of the sweater as-is. I wanted it to be more of a crop top, so I chopped a couple of inches of the bottom.

Chomp, chomp, chomp...

I could have left it there. I had what I wanted. But why leave something boring when you can make it interesting? Besides, my cut across the bottom was not as straight as it could have been, and those horizontal stripes made it very obvious.

I turned the sweater inside-out and grabbed a cup and a Sharpie.

See where I'm going with this?

I traced around half of the cup, moving it along the bottom edge until I'd done the whole thing. Then I cut along the lines. I did the same for the sleeves.

Just like kindergarten...

Then I flipped the shirt back inside-right and popped it on. No sewing necessary! The tight knit of this fabric is both comfy-cozy, and fray-resistant.

Scallopy!

Now I have a funky cropped sweater to keep me warm on this cold but sunny day! Perhaps I'd be warmer if I put some socks on...

Mom's Maker Makeover Dress

Hello again! I won't bore you with the details of my long absence - suffice to say that we moved out of our apartment into a house, and it was a lot of work but well worth it! If you keep a close eye on the backgrounds in the pictures, you'll be able to see my new floors.

Anyhow, I have an exciting and much belated announcement! Refashion Without Rules will be making its first public appearance at the Prince George Mini Maker Faire on Saturday, September 30th! I am both excited and nervous to showcase my projects in person, and I hope to see you there!

My mom has agreed to help me person my booth, so the least I could do was manage a refashion for her! Obviously, I only want to give my mom the best, so I gave her this lovely kaftan.

She looks awfully happy to be wearing that...

This photo was taken at a family dinner at my grandparents', and the family were justifiably dubious when they first saw this frock. There is a lot of dress there, and it is very very bright--the picture doesn't do justice to just how tomato-y the red of this dress is. But the bottom border is gorgeous and the fabric is comfortable. This dress just needs to be a lot less, so that is what I planned to do.

The first thing I did was cut out the middle section, because I wanted to keep that lovely border and lose some of the red. There was a zipper down the back, but I cut right through it (making sure it was done up, of course).

Losing over a foot of length and a lot of red!

Then I also trimmed the sleeves to lose some more of the redness, at my mom's request.

Trim one sleeve...

...and use the cut section to measure the other sleeve.

Then I had to put this dress back together, sans center. The rule of thumb whenever joining two pieces of a garment is to make sure the right sides (the patterned or finished sides) are together--but simple as that sounds it always takes me a few pinning attempts to make sure I don't put something together half backwards.

Right sides together? Check.

I matched up the side and back seams and pinned them.

Seams properly pinned.

I pinned around the rest of the edge. Since the bottom piece from the skirt was wider than the top, I added two pleats in both the front and back to collect the excess fabric.

A pinned pleat.

Then I sewed them together! I went right over the zipper. Most sewing machines won't have a problem with a small zipper like this one.

It did make a cha-chunk sound, though...

With the top and bottom of the dress reunited, I noticed a slight problem. The original dress had a slit up the side, but with the shortened torso, that slit had migrated to an uncomfortable height. I unpicked the hem around the slit.

Picky pick...

Then I sewed the two sides of the slit together to match up with the existing seam.

Just follow the line...

Lastly, I dealt with the sleeves, and I apologize because I didn't take any pictures of that step! I did end up trimming a bit more off the sleeves to round them off, and then I simply hemmed the raw edge.

Here's the finished product!

Looking good, Mom!

 She'll be wearing this at the Maker Faire, and I'll be (hopefully) wearing an all-new creation there too! Come by for a live preview of my next post!

The De-Nightification Dress

It's July!  And do you know what that means?  One dollar clothing sale at the Hospice Resale Shop, my favourite second-hand store!  I picked this one up a few days ago, and it ended up being really easy, and required zero sewing!  I donned this nightyish number because the fabric was perfectly breezy for an already warming-up day.

All ready for a nap!

All this dress needed was to lose that bottom ruffle and get a little shaping.  It was quite pretty otherwise.  So it was off to grab the seam ripper and watch a mustachioed Belgian detective solve theatrical murders while I picked away.

Pick, pick, pick...

It took about a half hour to separate the two pieces.

Simple as that, it was ready to wear!

Just add a belt!

A quick and easy no-sew refashion for a hot summer day!

Canada Day Sundress

I decided to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday with a brand new refashion to wear out to the park for the festivities.  The weather has been warm but stuffy recently, and I wanted something light and airy to wear.  Unfortunately, the best I could find was this.

Open your eyes, dummy!

Icky side tie thingies notwithstanding, I could see that this dress was just begging to be turned into the lovely summer dress I wanted.  I started off with a couple of little chops.

I have plans for you!

Then I made one big chop!

Bye-bye, sleeves!

Now it was time to start the stitchery.  I folded under the raw top edge and pinned it, then I stitched it down.

Fold and pin!

Then I stitched down the front placket so that I wouldn't get any awkward button-gapage when I took this dress in.

Follow the existing seam to hide my work!

Then I pulled Gruella out of her corner and put the dress on her, inside-out, in order to judge how much to take the dress in.

Just a wee bit!

Now it was time to get out those side-ties I cut off at the beginning of this refashion!  They were all wrinkled and twisted, so I ironed the heck out of them to flatten them out.

You will be flat!

I pinned these to the dress like so...

See where I'm going with this?

Then I stitched down the side seams to make the top of the dress more fitted, and sewed on the straps!  I tried it on, and decided to take in the sides just a touch more.  When I laid out the fabric to make my adjustments, look who came to investigate!

Skimble decided to help!

After removing kitty from fabric, and sewing down the sides just that teeny bit more, I was all finished!

I said open your eyes!

Not bad for a refashion that, according to all photographic evidence, I did with my eyes closed.  Now I'm all ready for a warm day at the park and an evening of live music!

Happy Canada Day!