Refashion 201: Periwinkle Polyester Dream

This is a project that took all day, from about 9:45 a.m. when I settled on what I wanted to do, all the way til 7:30 p.m. when I sneaked back into my room after Oliver's bedtime to finish an accessory (AN ACCESSORY, I am so for real) to go with my project. The kids were so helpful, seriously. Not.  I'll try to hit the highlights as I blog the project.

First, a before. I could have put this one on, and in fact I did put it on in order to get a vision for a refashion. This is a bridesmaid dress from my BFF's wedding awhile back (I'm being kind by not doing the actual math, love you Susan!). I LOVE the periwinkle color, and I am a sucker for some flowy material. I still fit in it, which just continues to magnify my love for this piece. However, not something I am likely to throw on for church, so I have been thinking about how to get some more wear out of something so beautiful.

So, awkward. I don't actually have a photo of myself in my bridesmaid's dress from my best friend's wedding. Fortunately, she DOES have such a photo, seeing as how it was her wedding and all.

Hi, Ashley! Best maid and matron of honor ever, amiright? Do you see the fantastic asymmetrical neckline, one-shoulder design? Love this thing. This gem also has those long chiffony "wings" in the back, as seen in the next hacked-up photo:

 Chopped! I went in with my seam ripper the whole way around the bottom of the bodice, leaving me with this gorgeously shaped long skirt piece. There are three (THREE) polyester layers to this skirt because of course for my second ever refashioning project, I chose the most slipperiest and complicated garment in the closet. Thus, following my seam-ripping extravaganza, I had three raw, unconnected top edges that were only held together by the zipper. Yes, a zipper. Did I mention I picked myself a doozy of a project?

Cutest helper ever! If he's trying to measure his adorableness, it can't be done! Don't mind the sewing machine pedal and cord. Perfectly safe, I tell you. No babies were harmed in the making over of this dress.

Action shot of my vintage sewing machine (correctly threaded today!) making short work of those raw top edges.

 

Do you see the drape and flow of this material? Swoon. I would leave it this long if I weren't sure to break my neck hauling toddlers and babies up and down the stairs. 

I think it was at this point that yelling erupted from my young king and queen who were watching Cinderella in order to learn about how to be royal (parenting win). Mikayla was complaining, loudly and during Oliver's morning nap, that Isaac had turned off the movie. I dashed to help, and discovered that not only had he turned off the movie, but he had also used markers ALL over the living room hardwood floor. And both arms and cushions of the love seat. And when I restarted the movie, there was another little scribble on the TV screen. Seriously, you think you know a kid well enough to leave him alone for an hour and what does he do? I have never been so grateful for washable markers. And now you see why the ten-hour time frame for this little chop job.

Then I undertook the zipper. YOU GUYS, I shortened a zipper from the top! Cut the zipper to line up with the fabric, tuck it into the top seam on both sides, melt the top few (unused) teeth, and stitch a million times around to create a zipper stop. Ain't nothing to it! Except this is what I first ended up with:

 

That was some real good measuring there, folks. My method for that top seam was "I'll just fold it over about this much WHILE I run it through the sewing machine." That's unmerited arrogance if ever I saw it. The misalignment *probably* would have been ok, because you know what I plan to never wear this with? A belly shirt. Sweet heavens above no. But because I'm a perfectionist, and this was intended to be a learning project, I grabbed my handy seam ripper (which I do believe saw more action than the sewing machine on this project, bless). And I did get it to look just a wee bit better, with the encouragement of my cooing assistant.

My favorite part (which is not pictured because, well, read on) was trying to chop the length from the skirt. Picture me on my bedroom floor, meticulously aligning three slippery layers of polyester on my cutting mat, measuring and marking, rotary cutting - and all the while, Oliver is getting handsy with all of the things. So this step consisted of me straightening, flipping the baby away, smoothing, rolling the baby back over, making one fabric mark, rotating the baby toward his toys for the zillionth time. So much progress was made. It's a miracle the skirt has anything like a straight hem.

And the moment we've all been waiting for:

Ta da!! This might just be my Easter outfit, provided we don't still have five inches of snow on the ground trying to melt. It looks adorable with a white flowy cardigan - I took it off for the photo because it masked the true shape of the skirt just a bit.

And that matching scarf? Remember those long, flowy wings? Salvaged! I removed them from the back of the dress, ran a quick stitch to attach them to each other since they were already identical and the same width across - and I've got a lovely accessory to pull the outfit together. It's just a tad too long for my preference, so I might shorten it, but you get the idea.

I'm so tickled at how this turned out! This project definitely increased my confidence with a seam ripper and reconstructing a garment that already fit me. I'm looking forward to attempting this with a total fixer upper to see if my budding skills pass muster.

Refashion 101

I've been hording my old formal and semiformal dresses like they will come back into style my daughter will want to wear them someday. It's a lovely thought, and one that I'm sure my husband has appreciated as we are on our seventh residence in eight years of marriage. Full wardrobe box of momma's dead hopes and dreams? Check.

Except when I gave birth to my first daughter, these hopes and dreams received new life. Oh, it's been a long time coming, but she's finally four and interested in playing dress-up. And her momma has a thing about playing seamstress, so fueled with the best coffee in the world, I decided that today was The Day that eight years of lugging these dresses around would finally start to pay off.

Quick note on my sewing machine: It is an older machine gifted to me by my mom when they downsized last year. I've used it a couple of times now, but each time I have had to call her for some reason because it isn't working properly. Picture the two of us on the phone, her trying to remember using the thing (it's been awhile since she was regularly cranking out Halloween and school play costumes) and me trying to compare it to the portable model I had before, which is at least a couple decades newer in age. No, neither of us has the manual. Today I apparently couldn't thread it, despite having successfully done so several months ago. How many Grovers does it take to correctly thread an old Kenmore? Two, people. Two. And their iPhones.

So naturally I was looking for a "before" photo for each dress. It's not like I was going to put them on at this point, after all. You guys, I had to scroll so far down in my Facebook photos, I could practically smell their servers smoking as my page slowed and slowed. Suffice it to say, if the last time I wore these dresses was that long ago, the odds of me ever fitting into them, let alone looking age-appropriate, are slim to none (and Slim left town, as my dad would say). And here I was, in all my skinny, unmarried glory:

 Yeah, no full-length shot of this one. Sorry!

Happy (dating) anniversary to us! 

Let's just say I took the "va-va-voom" out of this one for my son (yes, my son) to wear for dress-up.

There's not too much to tell about the pink and white halter dress. I took in the back and stitched down the extra fabric instead of cutting it off, so that it can grow with her a bit as she gets bigger. And I took in the halter so as to hold the dress up appropriately. Oh, and stitched closed the bust so that it isn't hanging off of her awkwardly. Stay tuned for the "after" below.

The red dress, though, I am excited to show you. It is a really nice stretchy, clingy fabric (hey, why do you think I wore it for our anniversary?) and used to be a wrap-style dress with a silver ring closure, seen in the photo. My first step was to deconstruct it completely, to see what shape the actual fabric was.

This was better than I could have hoped for - vaguely cape-shaped already, and the halter style gave me ties for the neck. I just needed to remove the silver ring and then close up the seams. Also, I took in the center seam so that it wouldn't be SO big around his neck, and I stitched right up the outside edges to eliminate the ragged and irregular fabric that resulted from the deconstruction.

 Removing the ring, I had to cut through several layers of seams. Notice the poop on my thumbnail. Yup, poop. Not mine (that goes without saying, right?) I noticed it while texting Joel, obviously after I took this picture. Sigh.

 It got ugly, y'all.

But it was nothing a quick pass through my correctly-threaded sewing machine couldn't fix!

The headless seamstress models the almost-finished cape.

In the above photo, I hadn't taken in the center seam at all. You can see how wide it is; this would fit, well, around a grown woman's back. Once I took care of that, though, this little man was over the moon for his new Superman cape!

(Seeing it on him, I think I will go back and straighten the outside edges just a bit more. I thought the slight corner might be cool but it just flaps over his shoulder not as cool-ly as I had hoped.)

"Ok guys, look like a superhero and a princess!" 

She insisted I didn't need to shorten it because Cinderella's dress drags on the floor behind her, too.
Notice that Isaac's cape matches his Lightning The Queen socks.

I can't get over how the red dress made the PERFECT red cape, with the way it hangs and drapes and such. Also, I didn't try to do anything fancy, but I think the shape of his neckline turned out pretty cool for a cape. And I like the gathers in the back of her dress. They are caused by my stitching down the extra fabric on the inside - the dress is a sheerish layer over a white slip, so they didn't sew perfectly smoothly. Accidental ruching. I guess I'm kind of an amazing seamstress.

So, there you have it, my first refashion attempt! I have some pieces in my closet that I'd like to try to refashion, and I'd LOVE to do an all-out thrift store refashion from like a caftan or something. As a friend told me recently, though, the first step is just to get in there and try it. This was a confidence-building project, for sure, especially since I wasn't going to be too picky about the final product as dress-up clothes. My next project will either be to alter a clunky brown cardigan, or update an old formal gown for more casual wear. We shall see!

What projects have YOU been inspired to attempt lately? Does being stuck inside make you want to get creative, just to break the monotony?