Sparkly Gold Formal.

  Hello Readers. It is Dressember 2024. I am wearing and refashioning dresses all month to participate in this fund raiser. This organization works to help the victims of human trafficking in the U.S. and around the world. Currently there are an estimated 27million victims around the world. Most of these victims are women and girls. That is why we wear dresses all month, to raise awareness of this issue. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month. Visit their website to learn more.

 It's New Year's Eve. Are you going out somewhere fancy or staying home? I am probably staying in this year but with this sparkly dress, I will be ready for a spontaneous night on the town.

 Before and after.

This dress was so pretty. I found it at an unusual thrift store located in a warehouse. I was on a road trip and stopped in. It was a diamond in the rough. 

It was just way too long. Even my highest heels couldn't fix this. It needed to be shortened.

 

I gave this dress a big cut to shorten it. 

 

The original hem was a visible and wavy lettuce leaf hem. I wanted to recreate that. 

 

I set my stitches as close together as I could and I gently stretched the fabric as I sewed. That would give me the look of the original hem. 

 

My dress was shorter but what about the fabric I had cut off. Let's use it. 

 

I had this piece from the hem. What if I made a shawl or wrap to go with my dress?

 

I sewed the cut edges together with the right sides facing each other. 

 

 I always like to use all the fabric and this was a great use. When I go to my next formal party I will be ready. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother of the Bride Part 2

 Hello Readers. I am starting 2023 off with a mix of refashions that have caught my imagination. Today is a post about what was left from a December refashion. This was a mother-of-the-bride dress from David's Bridal. I loved the sage green but it was kind of matronly and boxy and much too long. 

Before and after I shortened the dress. I altered the jacket and wore it separately. 

Let's focus on the jacket. It was so pretty. The beading was gorgeous. The sleeves were an unflattering length that I could not push up. The jacket also had no fasteners so it had to stay open. The fabric was stiff and it gave the jacket a boxy cube shape. The size was right, maybe I could change the shape a bit. 

 

This was my inspiration, although my jacket doesn't look like this. The elastic at the sleeves and the matching tank/cami under the shirt are what started today's whole refashion idea.
 

I wanted to ad elastic to the cuffs so I could push the sleeves up. It would look better and make the jacket look less formal. I used beige elastic that blended with my skin tone so it wouldn't show. 

I used my sewing machine to connect the two ends of the elastic. It could also be sewn by hand. The elastic just needs to be connected into a loop.

I thought I might want to close the jacket so I added one of these tiny snaps. 

I had to sew this on by hand. I hate hand sewing but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

The jacket can stay closed now but it does hide some of the beading.

I like the jacket open and I wore it with a matching tank. It is sort of a blouse-jacket. The pushed up sleeves change the look for the better.Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update- To be honest I have not worn this jacket again. I still like it, I just haven't worn it.

Blue Formal

 Hello Readers. Are you going to celebrate on New Year's Eve? You might be going out, or going to a party, or going to the living room. Whatever you do and where ever you go, I wish you a happy 2022. I wanted to create a party look in case I had a party to go to. I was not counting on Covid/Omicron showing up and messing up plans for a lot of us.

Before and after.

This dress is obviously dated. (I prefer the term "vintage". I am almost 50 so I will not be describing myself as old, I am now "vintage".) I loved the light blue color. The material was very soft as well. It seemed home-made. I loved that. Some woman somewhere spent a lot of time to create this outfit. I wanted to honor that but also make it wearable for today. 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the matching jacket. Let's just focus on the dress. It was very long and formal looking on me. I am not a formal person so how could I make it more casual and wearable. 

I started with a huge cut in the length. It was just too long on me. I wanted the length to be just above the knee.

It just needed a quick hem. Sometimes easy fixes are all that is needed. 

It looked like this when I was done. 

I was ready for a party. 

I could also dress the dress down with my favorite striped sweater. Happy New Year!

***I have been raising money all month by wearing dresses or ties everyday. Why? I do it because the impact of human trafficking and forced labor on our modern world is staggering. 

1 in 10 children worldwide is hurt by this issue. We need to change this situation now. Go to Dressember.org to learn more.

Corona Formalwear

 Hello Readers. What am I doing in formal attire during pandemic? That is a great question! I originally planned to wear this to a fancy anniversary dinner. Those plans got cancelled. It's OK, we still had our anniversary. 

 

                     This is a lot of dress for quarantine but look at that pretty pink color! I didn't want to give up on it. How could I make it quarantine appropriate?

I did a lot of measuring to get the length just right.

 I did a lot of cutting to get both layers of the skirt even.

 This is where it get s a little crazy. I used a lighter to melt the edge of the outer skirt and stop it from fraying. Why did I do this? It makes the skirt much lighter than a traditional hem does. And playing with fire is fun. It is important to test the fabric first to see if the fabric will just melt and not burst into flames. I kept the flame moving along the edge of the fabric. The base of the flame melted the ends of the threads together. If you stay in one spot too long it will leave a mark. Please note- this is not a safe or professional way to alter clothes, if you try this I am not responsible for any destruction.

Please have a fire extinguisher handy and have good ventilation.

This dress was perfect for getting some yummy Hawaiian shave ice. I added the sneakers and white t-shirt to make this look more casual.

 

I'm just waiting in line for treats in my new fancy casual dress.

 

 Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

A Bridesmaid Dress

Hello Readers. I hope you are well during this Corona/Covid-19 virus quarantine/stay-cation/ isolation. Whatever you want to call it, it is disruptive and annoying and causing trouble for all of us. Some people are sick, some are working to exhaustion, and some are out of work and scared... it goes on and on.

Today's post is about a bridesmaid dress. I started this dress before the stay-at-home order came out. This dress was for a wedding that was scheduled during the shut-down. I didn't want to post about it until I knew what was going to happen with the wedding. Don't worry, They got married. It was not the wedding they originally planned. Only immediate family was there. Friends were out in the parking lot ready to cheer and wave (from a distance) at the happy couple when they left the church.

This dress needed to be a bit shorter so this bridesmaid could walk down the isle safely. It was also very low cut in the front. Too low cut. But this clever bridesmaid had an idea. A great idea to fix this dress.

The only fabric I had to work with was this long narrow strip of fabric from the bottom of the dress.This is what I cut off the bottom of the dress when I hemmed it and made it shorter. What could I do with this narrow strip of fabric?

The bridesmaid suggested layering pieces of fabric at an angle and filling in that low cut bodice. I was impressed with her idea.Very impressed.

I connected some pieces and inserted them into the dress. It was easy in theory but the slippery fabric was a challenge to work with.The picture below is of the inside of the dress while I was working on it.

Here is a look at the added fabric from the outside. It made the dress more modest and comfortable for the bridesmaid. Using the fabric from the skirt made it a perfect match.

I don't have a picture of the bridesmaid because the wedding had to be so much smaller. She didn't get to wear this dress at all. But when she wants to wear it.... she is ready.
Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.