Junk Shop Vintage Necklace Refashion

I found this amazing (and high quality!) necklace at a junk shop in Augusta, Georgia (where I was stationed while in the military). I went back down to visit family and friends, and my friend suggested we go to this cute little junk shop. 

If you're ever in the area, you must check out Mema Had One. My friend, her son, and I had a ball wandering around in there. 

I think I paid $5 for this necklace, and although I thought the length made it look a little frumpy and old ladyish, but I thought it would look cute shorter. 

And it did look cute shorter! 

For more information, check out the post on my blog, Emprovising. 

Born suede fringe booties renewed!

I found this amazingly cute pair of Born suede fringe pseudo-booties. I love them, and I got them for a great price on eBay.

When I got them, the leather ties were pretty worn out and looked like they were going to break when I walked (which I thought would happen while walking around the DC metro stations on my way to work!), but luckily I had the materials to give them a quick makeover.

For the full post, visit my blog, Em-provising. 

Fabulous Fall Sweater Dress Refashion

I love love love fall, so I have been holding on to this sweater dress from the 80s that I found at my favorite thrift store. The top part fits perfectly, the bottom didn't fit so well. I decided it would make a perfect fall sweater!

Here it is before on my dress form:

And here it is after I finished with it! You'll have to pardon my use of bathroom selfies :)

I just love that it has pockets!

You can see the full refashion with details about how I handled this crazy knit fabric in the post on my blog, Em-provising. 

Take a Look at This Gem!

I recently had the very distinct pleasure of traveling back down South to visit my Granny and hitting up my favorite-ever thrift store while I was there!

I scored some really great refashionables, and I was thrilled!

One of my favorite pieces was this amazing jewel shirt. At least I think those are jewels...

Before, it was bigger and more billowy, and had longer sleeves than I like. 

I took in the sides and shortened the sleeves, and I love how it came out! 

Pardon my use of bathroom selfies... 

For more detail on what I did, and for a close-up picture of this amazing jewel fabric, you can visit my blog, Em-provising. 

Socks From Old Sweater Sleeves!

Of course I would finally have time to post this cute tutorial, and it is almost Spring! Ha!

I made these cute mittens from a sweater I used to wear when I was 18. I love the color, and I wanted to make sure I used all of it. So I decided to make some super warm long socks out of the sleeves!

Before, just as lowly cut off sweater sleeves:

And after, as lovely warm socks!

And of course in the middle, Clyde wanted to help. :) 

You can see more about how I made them on my blog, Em-Provising. 

Happy Refashioning! :) 

Sweater Mittens (how original)!!

I know I am not the first person to make mittens from an old sweater, but I had an awesome old sweater that only fit me when I was like, 19. I didn't want to get rid of it because I love the color and how soft it is, so I decided to try my hand at this popular project.

Here is the sweater before, which is way too small:

Here is how they turned out:

To see the complete project, you can visit my blog. I love how these turned out! Happy New Year! :) 

Free the Lumberjack Plaid!

The weather is getting cold here in the DC area, and I have had this flannel, lumberjack/buffalo plaid pioneer dress sitting in my refashion pile for a long time (like... more than a year...). I loved it when I found it, and have just been so busy. The weather is perfect for it now, so I decided I would refashion it!

Here is is before- too long, with shoulder pads. Very 90s.

After removing the shoulder pads, shortening the hem, and adding darts to the "under boob" area, I thought it fit quite nicely. However, leaving the sleeves rolled down looked a little frumpy to me, as they are the baggy sleeves with tight wrist cuffs that were popular in the 90s. Nope. :)

Here it is:

The best part? I got this dress for free, and the tags were still on it from when someone bought it (presumably in the 90s)! You can learn more about this dress here on my blog, Em-Provising.

An Infinity Scarf from Old Tee Shirts!

Are you ready for fall? Do you have any old tee shirts lying around your house? Perfect!

I made a really soft, awesome infinity scarf from some of my husband's old tee shirts. Fall is my favorite season, and I cannot wait to wear this scarf!

Here are the tee shirts before:

And here is the scarf afterward!

For the full post and instructions on how I made it, visit my blog, Em-Provising. 

Something made from something made!

I made this pearl necklace a while back, and never wore it. I guess it just didn't really sit right and I never really liked the way it looked. So instead of letting it just sit there and never wearing it, I decided to make something out of it that I would wear!

Here it is before I refashioned it: 

I bought a cool copper-colored chain and added the pearls in sporadically. 

And here is the finished product (I apologize that I did not get a pic of me wearing it... my husband was deployed when I took these pics and no one was around to take them! I will be trying to get a better one soon and will update when I do): 

Hope you enjoy this refashion! See some of my others on my blog, Em-Provising. 

Loud 80s Shirt Dress Refashion

Hello everyone! I found this dress for SUPER cheap at my favorite thrift store. It was pretty dated before I got to it, and boy do I hate shoulder pads. But I saw potential, and I love the pattern and color.

Here it is before:

After quite a bit of snipping and pinning, here it is after I finished! 

Hope you like it! You can see more of my refashions and posts on my blog: http//emprovising.blogspot.com 

Spring Pink Refashion

I was lucky enough to be able to go to my favorite stuff-a-bag-for-$4 thrift store during a recent trip down South, where I found this gem from the 80s:

Great color, horrible drapey thing. After a little sewing and ripping, I came up with this:

Sorry about the terrible work selfie! :) You can see more about this dress on my blog, Em-Provising. Just click here.

Polka-Dotted Dress Refashion

Hello everyone!

I found a very frumpy, but very salvageable black and white polka-dotted dress. It had a lot of things that made it pretty outdated, but I took care of that!!

Here it is before (please forgive that it is not me inside the dress, my husband is out of town and I can't trust the dog with a camera): 

Here it is after I got done with it:

I hope you like it! You can learn more about what I did to it here, on my blog, Em-Provising.

Old Lady Floral: a Pirate-Shirt Refashion

Hello everyone! I have been so busy with a move to the DC area that I have barely had time to whip out the old sewing machine. That's changing though, as we are getting all settled in here... and we LOVE it!

I found this shirt at the Salvation Army in Georgia a while back. I thought it would actually look good on and of course I did not try it on... but when I did, oh man. It was BAD. What was I thinking? It looked like a pirate shirt, but with flowers! It was just terrible. I knew that parts of it were good, though. So I decided that I would do a little deconstructing.

I took the sleeves off and used the sleeve material to make a tie-around belt! That gives the shirt a little bit more of a shape, instead of looking overly billowy.

I apologize for the lack of before picture... my husband was still deployed when I made this! You can see the entire post here on my blog, Em-provising. :)

Before (on my dress form):

After (on my dress form): 

After, on me! 

Fall Floral: a heavy knit hem

Hello again everyone! I wanted something warm and fun to wear to Thanksgiving this year. I found this floral, knit, outdated dress at a local thrift store that I love to go to, and I think I paid about $0.75 for it.

I could see that it had potential, but it was too long. Here is a before picture, along with my cat, Darwin, being indecent. I apologize.

Hemming heavy knit fabric turned out to be soooo much more difficult than I thought! I spent a few hours on a job that should have taken me about 45 min, tops. I finally got it right, though, and here is the final product!

 For more of the story, you can visit my blog, Em-provising.

~Emily

Impromptu Date Night Refashion

With graduation looming, I have not had a lot of time to refashion! I did, however, have a few minutes to make a quick change to this thrifted dress! I got it at the local thrift store and loved everything except the length. That is an easy fix, right? Yep. It was! The impromptu sushi date my husband suggested yesterday evening motivated me to whip through this quick refashion so I could wear this cute fall-colored dress! For your viewing pleasure:


Before. Although you cannot see the length too well because of my silly pose, it hit me about mid-to-lower-calf. Not too flattering on me.

Voila, Shortened about 6-7 inches. Date night ready!

You can see the whole story about this easy refashion, including the reason I almost did not buy the dress in the first place, on my blog, Em-provising.

Frightfully Frumpy to Fall Fabulous!

I found this super frumpy dress at a local thrift store, where I stuffed an entire grocery bag (and I mean STUFFED!) for $4! This dress cost me under a dollar, I am sure. I hated the puffy sleeves, and the super-frumpy length, but I love the print and the buttons on the front. The silhouette was super cute too, AFTER I shortened it. :)

Here is the before picture... kinda Amish-looking, right?

But, like I said, I love the print.

After taking the sleeves off, shortening the hem, and finishing all the raw edges, voila! The finished product!

I made a few mistakes, and will admit that due to the consistency of the fabric, this was an incredibly frustrating project! You can see more about how I did this on the original post, on my blog, Em-provising!

My Frumpy-to-Fabulous Skirt Refashion

Hello everyone!

This is my first post here on the Refashion Co-op. I am so excited to be contributing, and I love the fact that now I will have a reason to finish some of the projects that I start and maybe would not be as motivated to finish!

A little bit about me: I am a military veteran, a graduate student (but only for a few more weeks, I graduate in December!), a wife, a burlesque dancer (I know! Scandalous!), the loving and doting companion to three "fur kids", and an animal rescue/adoption advocate. I blog over at Em-provising, and am really enjoying it. I love getting to know fellow bloggers and am sooo impressed with the amount of talent and creativity I see in these other women.

For my first contribution, I am posting a skirt I made a little while ago that has become one of my favorites for fall. I love it! The best part? I got it for free!

"Before": this skirt was about a size 18. Since I forgot to take a picture of it then, this is a picture of the original length, which was a weird, mid-calf length that was not flattering on me. This is FatSpice, our fat cat, who likes being in on the projects. 

After I had taken in the waist, making sure to preserve that cute waist-tie thing that the skirt originally had, I shortened it. Here is the finished product!! I love wearing it with my go-to booties and a white shirt. Of course, I pair it with a sweater now because it has FINALLY gotten cooler in Georgia. :)

If you would like to see more of the steps, you can go to the original post. Thanks so much for taking a look! :)