Flouncy Black Skirt

I've had this flirty, fun, black dress for a long time and despite being too small in the chest, I've never been able to part with it because I just love the ruffle down the front of the skirt. So after years of wearing it with a cover up, and finally letting it just sit in the back of the closet, I've finally found a happy solution. Time to chop the top off and turn it into a skirt.

It was hard to get the detail to show, but basically the dress has an empire waist, too small bust for me,
and a fun flouncy ruffle down the front and around the hem. 

I cut the top off just above the empire waist, and then sewed in an elastic waist band. I left a little of the ruffle that went across the chest to hang down over the waist band to hide the middle of the new waist band where the stitching doesn't blend well with the ruffle.

The still-getting-used-to-posing-pose. 

A close-up of the ruffle and hem, and an unfortunate close-up of the unflattering clinging
 and legs that haven't seen sunlight since last summer. 

I'm still debating adding a liner or finding some other solution for the cling-factor, but I'm happy I was able to save this favorite dress and find a way to make it wearable again. 

Flowery Hi-Low Skirt

For this quick, but slightly challenging (at least for my skills) refashion, I took this gauzy calf-length skirt and made it shorter in the front, for something with a little more shape and swing.

I love the print, but as it was the waist band wasn't very flattering.

I didn't think I'd be able to recreate a nice hem on this material, so instead I chopped material from the top, starting by sewing a diagonal seam across the width, making one side shorter. Since I sewed before cutting, I kept the liner and the skirt attached, so I didn't need to make any adjustments to the liner.

I had so much trouble trying to draw a line on this skirt, I finally settled for masking tape. 

After making a big chop, I used a zigzag stitch to make an overlock-type stitch to deal with the raw edges. Then I attached a wide piece of black elastic to create a new waist band.

Much better! Now to find more shirts to wear with it other than my go-to black and whites.

I love my new skirt and it'll be perfect for the unusually summery weather we've been experiencing lately in the Pacific Northwest.  I am also really pleased to say that my haphazard way of creating the hi-low hem (or is it high-low?) actually worked out, so you can look forward to more hi-low refashions in the future.

Thanks for reading!

3 Frumpy Sweaters to Work-Ready Clothes

Hello! This is my first blog with Refashion Co-op and I'm exited to FINALLY be getting started after almost four long months of procrastinating. I started the year out with a goal of doing at least one refashion a week, in hopes of cutting my overflowing tubs of old clothes and fabric down to a respectable size, but as you can see (ahem... *checks calendar* its March 26th)... I've been slow getting started.

I have, on the other hand, actually been refashioning a bit, just not posting anything. But better late than never, right?So without further ado... here are a few quick sweater alterations I did to turn thrift store finds into something a little more stylish and fitting for work.

Open front teal cardigan

This was a quick change, just snipped out the weird sewn in tank part, and took in the arms and torso.

Batwing-ish Sweater:

I found this black open-weave sweater at Goodwill "by the pound" outlet, and it only took a few minutes to bring the sides in to create a much more figure-flattering shirt

Maxi Skirt

I snipped the waist of this odd-length sweater dress and added an elastic waist to make a quick, comfy skirt to wear to work. The top half will be waiting in my stash until I find something to do with it... any ideas?

Thanks for reading, and I promise I'll be more prompt with my posts :) I'm starting my New Years resolution in March (well pretty much April), but I'm sticking to it! 52-weeks of refashions, here we go!