Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Trash to treasure

I'm back!!! So after a Long hiatus from my blogging I am now back and ready to give my sewing machine some love. It's hard to blog, work full time and plan a 2 year old's birthday all while keeping up with the normal everyday things. I just couldn't find the time to sew, so the break was a must. Unfortunately I do not have any "refashions" to post today, but stay tuned because I have some coming up. I do however have some pictures of what I have been busy doing while on my blogger vacation..

I don't like to stick to just one thing when it comes to crafts and such. I like to dip into just about everything, plus it keeps things exciting :) Here is a chair my work was going to throw out because they had no use for it and apparently no one wanted it. Well I'm pretty much what you would call a "trash picker" so this was like gold to me.

Before  ...............   After

I really love how this chair turned out and it looks so lovely in my living room.

So I guess you could sorta consider this a refashion right? Hope you this inspires you to rummage through someones trash ;)

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Lace it up

I love lace and the fact that it is pretty trendy right now does not hurt. I have been wanting to refashion something with lace, but when it comes to lace you have to be cautious of what material you use and what you use it for. Lace can be tricky, but the outcome is so beautiful.

I have been getting a lot of clothes given to me since the start of my blog and it's quite overwhelming. I appreciate anything anyone wants to pass off, but now I have more clothes to refashion than I do time :( I will not be able to post as often in the upcoming weeks. Lilah is turning 2 and as usual I have made a list a mile long of crafts to get started on for her party decor. So that means less time with the sewing machine and more time with my hot glue gun I fear for my fingers safety hot glue burns are retched.


Here is top that was given to me. I'm unsure if it was a night gown, dress or long top?? Either way it was thin, which is perfect for summer and floral print and if you know me you know I dig floral.




Remember that prom dress I refashioned? Well in case you forgot HERE it is. I had alot of that lace left over and I always save the scraps from my refashions just in case I want to use them for anything else. Well I wanted to incorporate the lace in something for summer and this is what I came up with.




I usually would wear a cammi underneath this top but I wanted the lace to be visible in the picture and the lace wasn't showing up with my cammi underneath, so excuse the bare back ;) lol

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Mom Jeans

I really hate that high waisted jeans have been dubbed
"Mom jeans" Seriously Moms are not the only ones who have been a victim of these Jeans and at one time they were in style and almost everyone wore them. Anyways the reason I am ranting and raving is because the other day I cam across some really cute shorts here and I swear I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but they weren't! The shorts were high waisted, apparently this style has come back again? I'm fine with it, personally I like a little high waisted pant every now and again. It got me to thinking about all the thousands of "Mom jeans" out there just waiting to be cut and refashioned. I just so happened to have a pair of old jeans that were high waisted and pretty unflattering. I only wore them to do yard work in, so if I ruined them not a hug loss.


Here are the jeans after I cut them off.

It's important to remember when cutting your jeans off, don't cut too short. This is in case you want to fold them over or if you cut uneven, always longer first then go back and re cut per your liking.


I prefer to fold my shorts over and give them that huckleberry fin look ;)

I really hate the facial expression I'm making. It would be nice if my husband would tell me that I'm making a confused look.HA!


So basically all this refashion in tales is sewing a fabric of your liking to one side of the shorts and hemming the shorts in a fold over. If you choose to not fold over and hem even easier. I will be doing some more of these type of shorts with a little bling added..stay tuned!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Jetson Flashback

Today's refashion feels Like I stepped right off the set of "That 70's show". It was a bit too Groovy baby. I don't know why I gravitate towards the strange and unusual it may be because I like a challenge or I wish I could have rocked this when it was in style or maybe a little bit of both.

I know I am strange for saying this, but isn't the pattern just awesome! I couldn't get over this gem when I came across it at the salvation army. I mean who would pass this up right? I know I know the "style" is a wee bit out of date, but other than that, overall it's completely salvageable :)


I'm looking pretty sharp eh?

After it was all said and done with I removed the sleeves, that was a MUST! Then I shortened it by a lot and then there was that dreaded 70's pointy collar **sigh** I was at a loss on how to make that thing look good and after much deliberation (with myself of coarse) I decided to cut it off and after I did that I hated it (typical) so back to the drawing board I went. I decided it needed the collar just not in the same way it was on there. I flipped it up side down and gave them a more Jane Jetson look..I always loved the Jetson's when I was a kid. Anyways I am happy with the overall look and it's more of a "going out" outfit not really appropriate for the workforce ;)

 Modern day Jane Jetson? I think so :)

For those of you who have no clue who or what I am talking about I will give you a little flashback to a cartoon I grew up watching. It's a true staple in cartoon history.




Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Like Mother like..

When I was a little girl I remember wanting to
dress up just like my momma. I have never really been able to wear her clothes and especially not her shoes.

On a recent visit to my parents house my mom was going through her things and pulled out this navy blue/black dress. It was really cute, a bit out of style, but overall it had potential. When she took the dress out she handed it to me and said "hear put it on I want to see if it fits you" me: "mom I won't fit in this" and after about a minute of us going back and forth I tried it on and well..it fit! My mom gave me the dress and said she hadn't worn it in about 10 years, but it was one of her favorite dresses so she could never get rid of it. She made me promise I would do something with it. 

After weeks and weeks of staring at the dress unsure what to do with it and kinda scared to possibly ruin a dress my mom treasured enough to keep for so long I finally got the guts to cut it up. My best friend Jenn had a great idea of raising the waist to make it more of a vintage 50's style dress rather than the droopy waist it had going on currently. I cannot tell you how many times I messed up this dress. I ended up walking away from it for a week before I finally finished it. Refashioning can be frustrating sometimes..grr.


So there you have it! A wearable updated dress that used to be my mothers and like her I can wear it and cherish it :)


Love you mom!



Friday, June 1, 2012

"PROM QUEEN"

There truly is nothing like finding a gem while thrifting. I was so exited when I came across this beauty that when I saw it I just had to have it. The best part about the dress was it was a whopping $15.00 and still had the original tags attached to it, which it so happened to be a genuine SAX dress :) Triple score!! I bought it in hopes to find a reason to wear it and for my cousin to wear it for homecoming next year, however there is always a silver lining. The dress was too small. Words do not express how heart broken I was. My husband was able to zip the back of it, but not one single breath could be taken. 

Say hello to my refashion model Jessie :)
She an walk, run and BREATH in this dress!

This dress is just adorable! I really hated to cut it up, but I also couldn't watch it sit and never be worn due to it not being "wearable" 
Isn't she the cutest!!

Okay so like I said I didn't want to do too much to change the overall style of the dress just a little "update". I think that it's important to not takeaway it's personality especially sine it is a vintage piece. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the dress is made of silk underneath and lace with gold hints on top. 

After...

I loved how this dress turned out. I know I say that about all my refashions but I literally almost fainted at goodwill when I saw the price on this dress, so it's kinda got a soft spot in my heart.


See the gold hints? Love it!

RAWR!! loving the blue nail polish..hehe


Okay so this dress is for sale. I usually do not sell any of my refashions but given the fact that I cannot wear the dress and breath at the same time is a bit of a problem, so if your interest just shoot me an email :)


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Child Maxi

After a much needed 4 day weekend I am back to blogging. Today's post is a little out of the norm for me. I am typically what I consider a "fixer" but this weekend I really wanted to make my daughter a maxi dress from scratch. I got a lot of comments a week ago when out to dinner about her maxi she was wearing (it's rare to find Maxi's for children). The maxi was a dress that no longer fit me properly so I made it kid size and ultimately it became a child size maxi :)

So, I had a bunch of material left over from when I made my daughters  a table tent for Christmas. The material was old sheets I had purchased at a thrift store, but the print was just adorable. I really loved it and thought it would be perfect for a dress.


 In the first picture shows everything you will need to make this dress. I shirred the top so if you are not familiar with how to do that here is a tutorial on how to get started.

Second photo is after I held the material up to my daughter and cut it to the appropriate size. I will add that I do not measure anything I do (bad habit) I do not suggest this, however it's just my personal preference.



After measuring or choosing your length and width of your desire start sewing!

I used this stitch first, then I used a basic stitch after I was done just for extra security. I recommend this if your making it for a child because they are pretty rough on clothes.


I am terrible at "step by step" pictures, but honestly if you know the basics this is not that hard.


Here is the finished product!! The top is shirred and the "straps" are ribbon. I wanted this to be as simple as possible. It only took me an hour to make this entire dress and Lilly loved it.