Ahoy Pencil Skirt

I don't typically do refashions for my "bottom" half... But I kind of wanted a new pencil skirt.

Quite Nautical

I thought this would do nicely since it already fit me pretty well. And since I didn't care for the top half, I merely cut it off.

It had a side zipper that I did have to shorten to fit in to my new skirt but that was actually a cinch! I cleaned up the raw edge left behind at the waist line, of course. Boom. Done.

For $1 I guess I can't complain... especially since I'm 2 sizes larger on the bottom and can rarely buy new to fit it! This garment seemed to be a perfect storm of luck...

For the full tutorial with more pics on the zipper alteration, click here :)

Happy Refashioning!

~Laura

TBT: Blue Granny Dress

I've been very busy personally and professionally; too busy to sew much lately... I hope you don't mind all the refashions from Yesteryear :)

This is one of my favorites (I say that about all of them...) from '13.

It was actually fairly simple. To see the full process with my original post, click here :)

Happy Throw Back Thursday

~Laura

TBT: "Julie's Wedding: Part I"

This is one of my favorites from the very first year of my blog. My friend Julie got married and I revamped this generic 90s floral shift into an off-shoulder tulip hem dress to wear for the occasion.

Click here to see my original tutorial :)

Happy Throwback Thursday.

~Laura 

WHBM T-shirt

Other than the slightly fabulous neckline on this why, you ask, was I drawn to this glorified T-shirt?

Why?

THIS!!! 

White House Black Market is only the most chic (ie expensive) clothing shop ever! It's Amazing defined... Unfortunately, even on clearance, I just can't bring myself to make purchases. Someday, though. Someday! :)

Can you believe, I got this for only .99 cents? Talk about a miracle!

I shortened this sucker and did a rolled hem on the edge. Because it's stretchy it curls creating a lettuce leaf effect... a super easy trick I do all. the. time.

Voila

Easy Peasy.

For full post click here.

~Laura <3

TBT: Me-Made-May '14, Day 3

I've recently sworn off dye: It's just too messy and time consuming and I make no apologies that I'm the laziest seamstress on the planet...

Today, though, I'm sharing with you one of the more successful dye jobs I ever did.

Pearl Gray RIT dye was all I needed to spruce up this Tshirt I found for .99 cents. No sewing necessary! For my original post on this click here.

Happy Refashioning!

~Laura

Me-Made-May Maxi Dress

All month I've been posting refashions from yesteryear. Today, I actually have a Me-Made-May refashion from this year :)

This beauty was .99 cents and I wanted to turn it into a dress. I began by cutting the coral lining from the skirt and reshaping it into a bodice.

After resizing it, I reattached it to the chevron skirt

The Chevron material is super see-through so I added a knee-length lining from scrap material leftover from another refashion (Save your scraps!) :)

And I had (what I think) is a super pretty maxi dress that I wore to my step-grandson's mother's wedding :-D

In-depth detail of my Maxi Skirt to Dress steps on my blog if you want to see them.

Happy Refashioning in MMM16!

~Laura

TBT: The Lettuce Leaf Hem

Hey Guys. I absolutely HATED the Day 19 Refashion I did for Me-Made-May '14 :) So, I'm going to share with you a more successful refashion for today's #ThrowbackThursday.

This shirt appears to be perfectly fine as-is; however, it was long. Like, crazy long on me! 

I shortened it by cutting to my desired length. Then, I did a very tight zig zag stitch right on the raw edge. Because the material is stretchy, it creates a curl effect.. also known as "the lettuce leaf."

This is one of my go-to techniques. It's super easy and I use it all the time.

Happy #TBT and Me-Made-May '16

Original post here :)

~Laura

TBT: Me-Made-May-14

In 2014 I took "Me-Made-May" quite seriously. I refashioned 1 garment every single day for the entire month.

This was my Day 12 refashion (Appropriate for a Throwback since today is the 12th) ;)

If you'd like to see how I took this from granny chic to just chic (I hope..) check out my original post.

Happy Refashioning!

~Laura

Saying Goodbye: "Movah's" Day Refash

This Two Piece set was .99 cents.

I focused on the shirt only for this refash. I dyed it with Cherry and Fuchsia RIT dye and took it in a few inches.

Then, I turned it around using the back of the blouse as the front.

I wore this on Mother's Day, which was bittersweet for our family this year. My uncle passed away over the weekend. He was from Maine and had a New England accent. He always spoke fondly of his Mother, his "Movah." The title of my blog is in loving memory of him, obviously :) 

Me and my Movah :)

Uncle Bob was a character! I'm really going to miss him. If you'd like to see my original post with a tribute to him, please click here.

Happy Refashioning in Me-Made-May-16!

~Laura

A birthday T-shirt

A girlfriend gifted me this from her closet. I actually really, really liked it as-is.

I just needed to take it in a little bit.

 Pin, cut, sew. No big whoop.

This refashion took no time at all. 

I wore this to my (step) Grandson's birthday party.

His mother took this picture and has her own photography business. (Maybe I should hire her to take ALL my blog pics!) :)

This was simple and FREE... 2 of my favorite things :)

To see my post, click here.

Happy Refashioing!

~Laura

Autumn's Tunic

I NEVER refashion men's clothing... not sure why, I just don't. When I snatched up this frock for only .99 cents, it was mistakenly in the women's section of the thrift store.

It  wasn't until I noticed the buttons on the right side of the placket that I realized this was a man's shirt (women's shirts have buttons on the left placket). Oh well... there's a first for everything, right?

I found this FREE pattern on Pinterest (from "It's Always Autumn" Blog) and decided to use it for this beautiful fabric :)

I hate patterns! They never work right for me... but I'm a glutton for punishment and tried it out anyway. Miracle of miracles, it was super easy. I highly recommend it.

I finished the arm hems and added a binding around the neck with leftover scraps.

Be sure to check out Autumn's blog for this pattern. If you want to see my original blog post of this refashion feel free to do so here. :)

~Happy Refashioning!

~Laura

TBT: 2nd refashion.

This Jacket is not the very first refashion I ever did... It's actually the second :) Hence the awful pictures...

This is from my own closet. It's a jacket I wore constantly in my larger days.

I couldn't bring myself to part with it so I shortened the sleeves, the bottom hem, and took it in a few inches at the sides.... Unfortunately, it was still stained from being in my closet for years without a garment bag. I dyed it with some Scarlet RIT dye to remedy that.

I absolutely loved it! I pretty much wore it all the time again.

So blurry...There's no saving these pics...

This jacket made appearances in future blog posts like my Kindergarten Revisited top...

You might notice the color is slightly different in these "Kindergarten" pics... that's because I dyed it again :) I kind of get bored REALLY quickly with my refashions. This new dye job bought me another year or so of mileage on this.

The pictures are much better at the very least :)

If you'd like to see the original post of this jacket refashion (my 2nd ever blog post), feel free. Just don't judge me for the awful pics or the ineptness of my blogging capabilities at the time :)

Happy Thursday!

~Laura

Leap Day Oops: Part 2

For Leap Day this year I made a light jacket that I absolutely love. Remember?

Well, I still had the entire skirt of this dress left over as a scrap... I love the material so much, so I made a super quick kimono.

Going for a cocoon shape this time...

I sewed at the white dotted lines, cut the entire (top) scrap piece down the middle, finished the raw edges and wore my new kimono out for a chilly Spring day.

2 very similar refashions, yes. Maybe too much of a good thing is good? ;) I can't decide which one I like better... so I'll just wear them both. Why not?

To see my tutorial on this Cocoon Kimono with more pictures and instruction, feel free to visit my original post.

~Laura

TBT: Peach Kimono

This refashion dates WAY back to my blog's humble inception in 2013. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorites.

I cut the dress in half and made the kimono from the skirt. I followed Leanne Barlow's tutorial here that we've all seen all over pinterest :)

It's an easy tutorial. The most novice and advanced seamstresses alike can follow this.

A year after I made this kimono, I wore it for a photo shoot with my photographer Nedra Hollingsworth. 

I wish she could do ALL my "After" shots :)

 I still wear this kimono on a regular basis. I just love it so much. In fact, this was one of the refashions I used as my "audition" to get into Refashion Runway 3 last summer.

To see my original 2013 blog post complete with my non-professional after photos (A real #ThrowBackThursday treat, believe me!), click here.

Happy Throw Back Thursday!

~Laura