Dresses For December Part 6, Shrunken Lace

Hello Readers. This month of dress refashions has really been fun so far. I wanted to focus on dresses in honor of Dressember. Dressember is an organization that works to fight human trafficking and rescue and rehabilitate victims. They estimate there are 30 million victims worldwide. It's a huge issue, you can go to Dressember.org to learn more about what they do.

 

My dress refashion today was a simple one. Sometimes a piece of clothing just needs a little help to be great.

 

 

I started with this nice burgundy lace dress. It was a loose little shift dress. I liked it but the lace overlay had shrunk.

 

Look at the shrinkage! The dress was in nice condition but it looks pretty bad. I thought about making the lining shorter. It would have become a VERY short dress. I decided to try and add some length to the dress instead.

 

I ordered some black lace from Amazon.com and attached it onto the bottom of the dress. It was a fast way to add some length. I would have liked to add burgundy lace, unfortunately I couldn't find a matching shade. I thought black matches everything so I went with it. Navy blue or gray would have worked too.

 

The sleeves of this dress were much too long on me. They were loose bell sleeves and I thought the way to make them fit would be to add elastic. I used very narrow elastic and added it to the seam that ran around the wrist. It doesn't show from the outside but it changed the shape of the sleeve.

 

This made a little ruffled cuff at the edge of the sleeve. The elastic is comfortable but keeps the sleeves up and out of my way.

 

The dress hasn't changed drastically but it fits better now and the lining is the right length too. I think this color would be great for winter.

 

Thanks for reading this short refashion story, and happy sewing to you.

Dresses For December Part 5, The Shirt Dress

Hello Readers. It is freezing cold out there and I am still working on dresses. I am wearing tights and lots of layers to stay warm while I am wearing these dresses in honor of Dressember. You can go to Dressember.org and learn more about their work to fight human trafficking. They are raising money all this month and it starts with wearing dresses. Or bow-ties.

My dress today started as a 2XL men's dress shirt. It was really big on me and just long enough (I hoped!) to make a little black shirt dress.

 

 

Here is my beginning. This shirt was in great shape and I love black. But as you can see it is way too big and those arms are ridiculous on me. This was a great shirt to work with though, so I was happy.

 

The first thing I did was remove the cuffs from the sleeves. I used my seam ripper to pick out the stitches. I took them off the sleeves and left them to the side for later. I had a plan for them so I wanted them intact and in their original size.

 

You can see here what I cut off the shirt. I removed about half of the sleeve length and then reattached the cuffs. They will end just past my elbows. The cuffs make the sleeves look neat and nicely finished. I also took the sides of the whole shirt in to make it more narrow. It is pretty straight and boxy in shape. That's OK, This isn't a fitted style dress. I wanted a loose fit.

 

 

I planned to belt this little dress when I wore it. My dress form is wearing it here. It's so cold even she needed a scarf.

 

I wore this out and about running errands and when I added some extra layers I was able to stay warm but it was not easy. Yikes, it was frigid and windy.

 

 

 

***   BONUS PROJECT   ***

How did I stay warm? Fleece-lined tights. they look like basic opaque tights but inside is warm soft fleece. They are so cozy and warm. They are like sweatpants. I bought these without realizing they were footless and open at the bottom.

 

 

Here is the thing. They were so long on me that when I pulled them ALL the way up they were still hanging down on my feet. I didn't like the fabric all bunched up around my ankles like this. And I would like my feet covered and warm too.

 

 

I turned them inside-out and started stitching a rounded shape at the bottom of each leg. I was going to close them up and pretend they were meant to cover my feet.

 

Here is what it looked like when I was done. I cut off the corners so it would fit around my feet and I wouldn't have a bunch of extra fabric bunched up in my shoe.

 

I turned them right-side out and tried them on. It worked! They are closed and warm and now they do what I needed them to do, keep me warm.

 

Thanks for reading, I hope you stay warm where ever you are today.

Dresses For December Part 3, Two Shirts or Not Two Shirts

Hello Readers. This is my third dress in honor of Dressember. You can go to Dressember.org and learn more about their to stop human trafficking. It is an international issue, and we can all help. I hope I can help by raising some awareness of the issue.

 

My dress refashion today started as 2 shirts. I put them together and got a cute, casual, and comfy dress to wear.

 

 

Here are my two shirts. One shirt is olive green and the other is a mix of olive green and off white. They were both nice and stretchy but neither fit me very well. The heathered green shirt fit well in the sleeves but the body was huge. It hung on me in a very pregnant way. I am not pregnant so I didn't like how this shirt looked. The solid green shirt was too tight across the chest and I couldn't wear it at all.

 

 

Here is the olive shirt up close. It has some elastic in the front and the back. I thought the lower part of this shirt would be loose enough to make a skirt, so that is what I started to do. I cut off the sleeves and shoulders above the elastic. I wanted to save the elastic and use it in my new dress.

 

 

You can see in the photo below what I removed from the light colored shirt. I left the sleeves alone and made the body a little more narrow. I also cut off some length so it would bunch up under the skirt. The elastic that was already in the dark shirt acts as a kind of waistband. I stitched on top of it when I connected the 2 shirts. I used a zigzag stitch to keep some of that stretch in the waist.

 

 

I really liked how this dress turned out (It just needed a cami under that low scoop neck.) and I love a stretchy knit. Casual and comfortable is always the best feeling.

 

 

Thanks for reading, and happy sewing to you.

Dresses For December, Part 1

Hello Readers. It is the beginning of my "Dresses For December" series. I found out about another month long event happening in December, called "Dressember". Dressember was started by a woman named Blythe Hill. She wanted to raise awareness about human trafficking. It is a huge international problem, 30 million human beings in slavery world wide, according to the Dressember website. Most of them are women and children. You can see her TED talk about wanting to help and starting Dressember here. Her idea was to wear dresses the entire month of December (Dresses being symbolic of women.) and her idea grew into a larger charitable organization. Dressember.org is their website and they can tell you much more about what they and their partners are doing to help victims and how you can help wherever you are. 

I decided to wear dresses for the month of December and all my refashion projects this month will involve dresses. (I hope you like dresses.) My first dress is this purple sleeveless number right here.

This is the face I get when son tells me a story about how he needs money.

  

This purple knit dress is in good shape but it is too big. I am also going to freeze with out any sleeves so I will need to wear something under it. Or over it. Or both. It had a zipper down the back so I was free to alter it on the sides without interfering with the ability to put it on and take it off. And knits are usually very easy to work with and comfortable to wear. I'm excited, let's get started.

This dress was from Talbots. It feels like very nice fabric. I measured and double checked where the sides needed to be taken in and I used my machine to make new side seams. Easy-peasy! I shortened it a little because the length was a little dowdy on me.

This dress is just a comfortable as I had hoped it would be. It looks dressy but feels like a nightgown. I added a jacket and boots for the chilly weather.

  

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you can join me for the rest of my December dresses.

So Much Purple #3

Hello Readers. I am still in my purple refashion phase. Todays post started with a sparkly purple shirt. As you can see from the picture below I had 2 purple tops with sparkle on my refashion rack. Does anyone really need 2 purple sparkle shirts in their wardrobe? I don't think so.

 

 

I wanted to use the sleeves from this purple top and attach them to the floral button-down shirt you see below. I know what you're thinking. Why not just wear the purple top under the floral shirt? Why bother cutting and sewing. Just put the clothes on and go about your day, right?

 

 

I thought about doing that. I just didn't like the sparkles with the faded denim floral look. I didn't like how the sparkles showed from the armholes either.

 

 

So I simply cut off the sleeves and pinned them to the floral shirt. This will be the easiest refashion in the world. I will be done in 3 minutes. No big deal right?

 

Something went really wrong. I couldn't figure it out. It was super tight. Like difficult to put on tight. Like I couldn't button it properly tight.

After careful examination, I found that I had gotten some of the shirt caught in my sewing. I just had to pick out some stitches and stitch over that part of the sleeve. Well that's easy. No big deal right?

 

Something else went really wrong. I tore the shirt by accident while I was removing some stitches and now it had a hole in the back. A very noticeable hole. I wish I could say that I handled it like a mature adult. I wish I could say I was an example of grace under pressure. I was not either of those things. I got really mad. I said mean things to the shirt and I told the shirt I never wanted to see it again.

 

 

I still had the body of the sparkly purple shirt. I guess I could wear the sparkles with this purple plaid.

(Yes, I had even more purple clothes.)

So much purple, y'all.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my failed refashion. It doesn't always work. Things fall apart. Life is like that. Now, go try to make something fun for yourself.

 

So Much Purple #2

Hello Readers. I have been working through my purple refashions and todays post is about a shirt. A really weird shirt. It is a shirt but barely a shirt. I mean it is so sheer, is it really a shirt? Let's be honest here. I am never going to wear this. Even if it was over another shirt.

 

 

I really thought it was pretty and the beading was nice. I just didn't want to wear it. Where would I go wearing a see through shirt with all these beads? WalMart? The library? The pediatrician? I have never been anywhere that this seemed like an appropriate clothing choice. So, this shirt needs a new purpose.

 

 

This is a lamp in my house. It has been around for 22 years. Someone nice gave it to me as a wedding gift. (Thanks Laura!) I am not sure if that is the original lamp shade but it is a little old and a little yellowed with age. I have wanted to get a new lamp shade or spruce it up for quite a while.

 

So how did I figure out that this shirt fit over the lamp shade perfectly? Do I try all my clothes on lamps? Do I randomly put clothes on other objects? No, this is the only time I have done this.

But it did fit so, I just ran with it.

 

Here is a look from above the lamp. You can see the arm holes are hanging down in the lamp. This would be a serious fire hazard. I don't want to burn my house down so....

 

I cut off the excess and left about an inch to fold over the top inside the lamp shade.

 

I used a hot glue gun along the inside top edge. You can see the excess here after gluing. I love hot glue, it dries in just a few seconds. When I was done with the glue I trimmed off all the excess fabric so it would be nice and neat. (And safe!)

 

Here is my finished lamp. The beads added a little fun and sparkle to it. Who knew a lamp could wear a shirt.

 

 

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