Wool & Winter White

If' you've been following along with the Renegade Seamstress's Refashion Runway - and if you haven't you've been missing out - you know that this week's theme is winter white.

I sewed along with the peplum challenge a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd sew along again this week. I didn't have any white in my "to do" pile, but I was able to find an off-white top and a blue-gray wool skirt for $1 each. Both were ill-fitting and outdated. Perfect.

Frumpy squared.

The shirt was just a bit too big and had an attached polyester lining. I cut the lining away from the lace, pinned, and sewed the sleeves and sides to make the shirt fit a little better. Then I reassembled the lining into an undershirt.

Separate and take it in.

The skirt was way too small. To make it fit I cut off the waist band and removed the unnecessary pleat down the front. Then I undid the hem around the bottom, and added two new small pleats in the front of the skirt to match the original pleats and nip in the waist.

De-pleat and re-pleat.

I didn't feel like creating a new waistband (lazy me) so I finished the edge around the top with 1/4 inch double fold bias tape and added a hook and eye above the zipper to keep the top closed.

I paired my winter white top and wool pencil skirt with gray tights, black shoes, and the wide black belt that I altered a while back. 

New winter office wear.

This project has me antsy to start on the winter refashions I have lined up. I should probably finish my fall projects first, right? 

More photos of the refashion in process and a lot of other projects can be found on my blog.

- Elizabeth
aka The Hungry Octopus

Now blogging at www.TheHungryOctopus.com!

Think Pink (Stripes)

Week one of Refashion Runway has flown by! My very talented competitors and I submitted our before and after photos on Friday, and now it's your turn to vote for your favorites!

For those of you not familiar with Refashion Runway, it is an online sewing competition hosted by one of my favorite bloggers, The Renegade Seamstress. Each week the eight competitors (and anyone who wants to sew along with us, hint hint) complete a different sewing challenge - stripes, denim, a copy cat look, and a summer dress.

When I heard that this week's challenge was stripes, I knew just which dress I was pulling out of my "ugly" stash. It was a pink and white striped seersucker sack of a dress with an awkward zipper and lovely lattice detail around the neck.

Holy house dress, Batman!

After removing the giant pockets and the zipper, I sewed up the front where the zipper had been and cut the dress in half.

Maybe not exactly in half...

I fit the top of the dress to my dress form, gathering the fabric under the bust and adding two pleats/darts/tucks (whichever...) in the back. I also undid one of the sides to allow for a zipper and used the giant pockets to make the band around the waist. Then, I added three pleats in the back of the skirt and two in the front of the skirt before sewing the skirt to the rest of the dress.

Pleats and such...

Once the dress was mostly together, I added cap sleeves using scraps of leftover fabric. (My sleeve adding process was embarrassingly time consuming, but at least I learned what not to do next time.) Then I added a little gather/tuck at the top of the bust to make it fit a little better, and sewed in the zipper.

More pleats and tucks and such...

I was done in the nick of time! I snapped some "after" shots and sent them in to The Renegade Seamstress. Now all you have to do is vote for your favorite striped refashion! Please check out what everyone has been up to. We've got some really talented ladies over there!

Refashion Runway week 1: stripes

Next week's challenge is denim. Won't you join us and sew along?

 - Elizabeth

   aka The Hungry Octopus