The Caroler Coat

Many years ago I was given a vintage dress coat that swept all the way down to my ankles. It was a pretty gray wool with a dark velvet collar and it flared out into a skirt at the bottom. I called it my caroler coat because it reminded me of something a stereotypical Victorian caroler would wear.

I decided I was going to make this dress coat modern-dress friendly, so that meant shortening it. Honestly this doesn't feel like a real refashion, it’s a hem. But it drastically changed the look for the coat so I say it counts.

For the new length, I decided it should fall at my knees.

You can learn more about how I refashioned the coat and where I wore it on my blog probablyrachel.com.

Super Easy Dress to Skirt Refashion

I had an adorable pink, gray and black color block dress. But I found I had stopped wearing it because it felt a little bit too short and because it was strapless I felt like I was constantly pulling it up.

Like with anything in my closet that sits unworn for long periods of time, I consider if I want to eliminate it from my wardrobe or simply change it. The dress had fantastic pockets and I really wanted to keep it, so I decided to turn it into a skirt.

I basically just removed the bodice part, shortened the zipper and finished the top of my new skirt waistband. It dropped the skirt enough to make it a totally comfortable and appropriate length that I decided to wear it to the office.

Here's the side by side:

To learn more about how I changed up the skirt and why I call it the "prevailing pink skirt," check my blog at ProbablyRachel.com

Same great dress, now with pockets!

Not nearly enough women’s clothing is made with pockets. I’ve long thought about adding pockets to some of my favorite dresses but never got around to it until now. I volunteered at a gala fundraiser and they requested that volunteers dress in black, so I went to my closet and pulled out my favorite black skater dress. 

I wasn't going to be able to carry my purse with me and needed to at least have my phone accessible. So I decided to add pockets to the dress. 

Great dress. No pockets.

I could have used the garter I made a few years ago for my friend's wedding, but it would have needed altered to fit my phone and it was about time this dress got some storage space.

The pocket material also had to be black to blend in with the dress, so I snipped part of the sleeve off from a black shirt in my refashion pile, making sure it was long enough to hold my phone. I determined where on my skirt would be most natural for a pocket and opened up the seam at that point.

With the dress turned inside out, I stitched the sleeve piece to the seam and then sewed up the bottom of the pocket. It was a quick, easy alteration because of the cut and material of the dress. Adding pockets to other clothing could be more difficult, but this one was a breeze.

The dress doesn't really look different with the pocket, but it functions so much better! 

You can read more about this alteration and the gala where I wore it on my blog ProbablyRachel.com.

Fixing a Cardigan by Making it Fancy

I had a black cardigan sweater that I’ve been wearing for years. It was the perfect weight, size and worked for casual, professional or whatever look I had. 

But my versatile cardigan met with a bit of a mysterious mishap in the laundry. This is what it looked like after some stitching up.

The sweater still looked pretty bad, but I was able to stop further fraying. So I took the fancy part off of an old headband that I no longer wear to cover the damaged area.

Here's what it looked like after adding the fancy detail:

I got lucky with the damage to the sweater in that it ended up roughly in the shirt-pocket area which makes sense for some sort of of embellishment, patch or brooch. If the laundry gremlins had tried to eat a different part of my sweater, I would have had to get a whole lot more creative to fix it!

You can check out the other photos of the refashion and more details on my blog probablyrachel.com.

Shorter Days and Pants

Here’s a final summer refashion as the weather has been cooler and the days have become shorter.

… speaking of shorter. I’ve had two old pairs of pants sitting in the refashion basket for awhile.

Both pairs were at least a touch too long and had the backs walked off of them to a point that they were frayed.

The blue pants were snug fitting through the hips to the knees, then came out in a wide flare at the bottom. These I decided should be capris.

The brown ones fit great in the hips and thighs, and were loose at the knees and quite wide at the ankles. I decided they should become shorts.

Here's the final product for each:

I love to get creative and turn one piece into something completely new, like turning a man’s shirt into a dress. But sometimes you just need to make a few adjustments to turn a useless, out of style item into something you actually need.

To see more details, check out my blog probablyrachel.com.

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(Too) Little Blue Dress Refashion

Here’s a little shopping advice, never buy a dress without trying it on first… even if it is only $2.

I picked up this blue dress and was dismayed that it was too tight and too short.

I loved the color and textures, just not the fit. I measured it out against a top that I like and cut very carefully along the wavy, ruffle. Since the fabric didn't require a hem, I was able to just put it on and go visit wineries.

To see more details on this refashion and where I wore it, visit probablyrachel.com.

Peachy Keen Top

The color of this dress caught my eye when browsing clearance racks. I wore it a few times, but the way it clung to my hips made me so self conscious I would only every wear it with a long sweater. I finally decided to make it more versatile.

It looks good on the dress, but not so much on me. My original plan was to refashion the dress to look like the top I picked in one of my most popular pins. Once I got to work the top took a different shape.

You can see the details and more pictures from this refashion on my blog at ProbablyRachel.com.

Coffee Bean Wrap Dress

I picked up this coffee bean print dress in the same thrift store trip that I picked up the jumpsuit that got new life as a dress last year.

It had a collar, a couple of awkward front buttons and strings to tie the back. But the print was perfect… coffee beans!

This large, long and strange caffeinated dress had the makings of a perfect wrap dress. I removed all the extra things like shoulder pads, buttons, ties and strange armpit panels. Then I cut the dress down the center, got rid of the collar, fine tuned the sizing, shortened the dress and reattached the ties to make my coffee bean wrap dress.

You can see the details and more pictures from this refashion on my blog at ProbablyRachel.com

Pink Pinch Dress

I picked up a couple of dresses on an online super clearance. The price was right and they looked good in photos, but when they arrived, I realized that I had ended up getting a shapeless knit tent.

I didn't have to do much to fix this problem. 

I brought in the sides at the top then created a waist by adding pinch-type pleats on each side, in the back and then two in the front. This shaped the skirt much better and gave it some movement.

Then I cut off the long sleeves to make them 3/4.

My (dark) after photo is following a long day at work, I styled my refashioned dress for the office with all black accessories - tights, belt, cardigan and a chunky black necklace.

You can read more details on the process on my blog, ProbablyRachel.com.

Getting the Maximum Use Out of a Maxi

One of my top three posts of all time on my blog is What to Wear to a Graduation. In that post I not only shed some light on what I consider to be appropriate attire for graduation ceremonies, I debuted the first maxi dress that I ever bought.

After a handful of wears in the course of a couple of years, I realized that I wasn't getting the maximum use out of the dress.

So I sat down with it and 15 minutes later, I had the perfect maxi skirt for a work cookout.

For more pictures and my four easy refashion steps, check out my blog, probablyrachel.com.

Easy Skirt-to-Bag Transformation

I'm not a huge fan of the color yellow, so when I was given a yellow ruffled skirt several years ago, I found I rarely wore it.

I decided that the skirt would look better as a bag and the yellow could be a removable pop of color as an accessory as opposed to the foundation of an outfit as a skirt.

I removed the top portion of the skirt and attached it as a liner and took scraps from my Just a Trim Dress and made a strap.

Now I have a ruffled yellow bag. I posted more steps on my blog at probablyrachel.com.

A Jumpsuit Gets New Life as a Dress

I started with this Sheri Martin, New York jumpsuit that had lost it’s size label a long time ago. This quirky number was built for the very tall, jump-suit adoring woman… aka not me. (I am actually wearing jeans under it in this photo!)

I knew I wanted to make this into a dress, so the first thing I did was rip out the leg seams so I could put it on my dress form. From there, took in all of the too big parts, made a couple of new seams and shortened it to my desired length.

The end result was a dress that I could wear to the office.

To see more details and pictures from this refashion, visit my blog at probablyrachel.com.

No-Sew T-shirt Dress

It's been awhile since I shared a refashion. For that I'm very sorry.

I have several half-finished projects that have every single one of my pins tied up, so I guess I need to finish one or two of them. For now, I'd like to share an incredibly basic, no-sew T-shirt to dress refashion.

I know I say "dress" but my plan was to do this as a cover-up for my recent vacation. Then I tried to do a part 2 that was unsuccessful, but I can share with you the successful part 1.

It started with a very large blue T-shirt.

I put it on, pulled my arms through the neck hole and did a few folds and tucks.

When I had finished tucking the arms, I had a little strapless t-shirt dress, that would work as a cover up.

All of the steps (and some ramblings about t-shirts) can be found on my blog probablyrachel.com.

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The Too-Big Tunic

Awhile ago, I tweaked this dress top that I got at Nordstrom Rack for $2 and just recently posted to project.

Here's the grainy and unflattering dressing room photo that I took... more than 2 years ago.

With a little tweaking, I ended up with a headband (remember?) and this:

You can see all the alterations I made on my blog here.

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Scraptastic Headbands

Super simple refashion(s) straight out of the scrap  basket today.
I had some hem scraps from two different refashions, the bottom hem from one shirt refashion that I haven't posted and the original neckline binding from my lavender dress a few months ago.

For the light lavender scrap that I had, I simply placed the middle at the top of my head and and tied it under my hair.

The other scrap was much longer since it was the entire bottom perimeter of a tunic-style top. I put the middle of the scrap on the back of my head, under my hair, wrapped it around the top, crossed the ends and took them back the direction that they came, leaving a bit of a knotted look. I also tied if back under my hair.

I feel like these stay better than store-bought headbands and are more comfortable than ribbons. You can read more about my scrappy headbands on my blog, probablyrachel.com.

Do you have any favorite scrap projects?

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Shorter Shorts

I have a lot of half-finished refashion projects. Most of what I decide to undertake is reasonably time intensive and my schedule isn't conducive to day-long projects. So I needed an easy project on a whim. 

I had this pair of capri pants that… well this is what capri pants for normal-height people look like on a short person.

I typically wore them rolled up three times, then I got sick of the bulky cuffs and I decided to make them shorter. So I cut them to the length that I wanted, rolled the edge and tacked them down.

Ta-da!

You can read about more of the details on my blog at probablyrachel.com.

Dress Up Boring Rain Boots

I bought this $5 pair of black rain boots for the sole purpose of improving them. 

This no-sew refashion was super simple and quick, here's what you need:

•  Boring rain boots
•  Fun ribbon (green for me of course!)
•  Razor knife
•  Painter's tape (if you're good at eyeballing measurements you don't need this... I am not)

Detailed instructions can be found on my blog, but the basic steps are measure, slice, weave in ribbon, go jump in a puddle.

More rain boot fun is on probablyrachel.com.

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Mom's Peach Dress

One of the most popular topics on ProbablyRachel.com is refashioning clothing, I’m often asked how I learned to sew and aside from learning how to hem a pair of pants and sew on a button, I never really was taught anything else. I watched my mom sew from time to time, but I think there’s a part of my refashioning that’s inherited – genetically speaking.

My mom is a very creative lady and I’m sad to say I didn’t realize that fact before I became an adult. Today’s refashion is hers and she graciously allowed me to share it.

Mom started with a peach chiffon dress with a hi-lo hem and crazy black accents that she didn't want.

Before:

All she did to change the look of this dress was replace all the black with peach ribbon and added a hint of lace and some rosettes.

After: 

You can see more pictures and more about her dress on ProbablyRachel.com.

Lavender Sundress

I picked up a few jersey knit dresses to wear in the summer and found that I never wore the lavender one.

Maybe because it just looks weird on me... I pulled it out of the refashion pile to make it into a dress that I would wear more often.

I removed the sleeves, raised the waistline, adjusted the back and threaded the old belt/sash through to make it tie at the neck.

You can follow the step-by-step, see more details and read about a bad habit many of us who sew have picked up over on my blog.