Soon to be Finished Dress Hacks

When I refashion, I refashion one thing: dresses. Actually, that's not always the case, I occasionally do t shirts and make pants into shorts. But for me, nothing is as fun and interesting as a dress. I've got 2 here and a few more at my blog Craft, Thrift, or Die.
I've been totally slacking, lately. First, I think I broke the sewing machine at my parents' house (probably not). Then, I recently opened an Etsy shop! That means before I start cutting and stitching an item that's too big for me, I consider if the dress is too valuable to risk ruining it with my uh..."talent."
I've actually got a bunch of dresses that I started refashioning for my own use and failed to finish (for any number of  reasons.) I've got them pinned and sitting in this pile just waiting to be completed. And then, a Christmas miracle...

 

A new sewing machine with my name on it under the tree! Which is actually not a miracle. I expressed interest in owning one and my wonderful family purchased one for me. Thank you, family!
It's out of the box and on top of an old vanity, that's step one. Step two will be threading it up and hoping I can make it work. Baby steps...I still have three days left until school starts. Until I get started, here are some "before" pics of the works in progress. Think of this post as a tease and the big reveal comes later.

I've been sitting on that number since summer time. My phone pics didn't do its color justice, it's a muted minty color. I think I was in the middle of changing those ugly buttons and lost motivation.

 

 I'm not sure why I even bought this one, but I guess I wanted a challenge. With the amount of material that I removed from the top I could make a nice king size duvet or something.

Handmade to Hulimade

I thrifted this handmade dress today for $1...it was rather big but I fell inlove with the fabric & knew I could make it my own:

I decided to make it into a maxi skirt as I only have acouple...It was very simple: I removed the zipper, cut off the top, stitched the back opening closed, added elastic & edgestitched the new waistband casing shut..It can be worn at the waist with flats or lower on my hips with wedges...

                                           I also found it can be belted & worn as a dress too:

Love Hulibug

High Low Dress - Another no sew project!

Taking inspiration from The Renegade Seamstress's high-low skirt project, I decided to try it on an oversized dress that I had. I absolutely love the fabric on this dress it's 100% rayon, but feels like silk and has a beautiful drape, the dress is a jumper style and with the volume the dress was just too much for my shorty self, so I thought this would be a great update on this dress.

BEFORE: FRONT AND BACK

AFTER: FRONT AND BACK

I WANTED IT TO  HIT SLIGHTLY ABOVE THE KNEE

AFTER - SORRY ABOUT THE BLURRINESS - As you can see I was scrambling to get into position on a wobbly chair in heels before the camera timer went off -SALUD!

(not) Always a Bridesmaid (dress) - a Royal Refashion

BB wanted a princess party. Which means princess attire is needed. Which means I get to make a fancy dress!! I realize most of my friends would not have been as excited about that, but I am hoping that some of you crafters out there know what I am talking about.
First thing first.. a trip to a local thrift shop!  Aren't you excited already!! Well... I was :)

After a little bit of searching, we found this... I am fairly certain this was a bridesmaid dress. It had great bones. And I just knew it would be a fun refashion.


The results are in and..... the judge approves!!



To learn more about the Royal Refashion come visit me here :)

Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, What were you thinking?

Shesh Ka Bob, Eddie! 

What were you thinking? This dress is so unflattering! No wonder someone dropped it off at the thrift store. They probably laid it on the doorstep, rang the doorbell and ran. :)

But at least you chose some great lightweight stretch denim so it had some promise.

I cut out the middle, resized it to fit better, added some ruffles and changed the sleeves to make this dress much more fun. I think Eddie needs to get out more on Saturday nights.

Come on over to the Renegade Seamstress to get the full details on how to make this dress.

Enjoy your day!

Beth

I'm back! My first refashion!

Hey everyone it is LaLaLauren!
Many of you know me as one of the editors here on Refashion Co-Op. Some have even gotten wonderful emails from me ;) I am finally back from the Refashion Grave! A lot has happened in the past few months that hindered my refashioning: 1-went to many meetings for work 2- on top of that wrote a grant in 1 week, which I just learned probably won't make funding 3- found out I need to be gluten free to feel good 4- sliced my left pointer finger severly with a knife trying to cook a nice gluten free meal. #4 was the biggest hinderance, I was unable to use that finger for a while, especially sewing. When it was semi-useful I was really slow b/c well it was incredibly painful. Typing has been fun!

I have recently gotten back into my craft room for my sanity but also b/c I need to downsize... because I am moving to Washington, D.C. in October to start a new job! Wahoo! I am so excited but I need to go through my refashion pile. It is so much easier to justify to my boyfriend to take clothing I can wear now, then something I have to fix when I move and can't wear at the moment. Now the push to finish projects!!! I have started a 60 days to DC blogging session on my blog to force encourage myself to finish up projects here in the house! This is my first refashion of the 60 days (we are barely at a week and I shake my head wondering what was in my water when I came up with this idea).

I don't have a before picture. I know shame on me b/c I am an editor. Basically, I took a curtain from my stash of fabric and used the Anthro Knock Off Dress pattern from iCandy handmade to make me a fun, bright dress.

What is great about using a curtain is it had its own lining and thus not see through. I paired with a fun belt and my favorite boots and I was ready to hit the farmers market.

There is a bit more about this refashion here but I will admit just a little bit more. Here's to more refashions and sewing now that my finger is healed. And to 60 days to DC of blogging! I am really excited to see what thrifting DC has in store!

Cheers,
LaLaLauren

Valerie's Vintage Dress Refashion

Lucky me!!!

I've always been so fortunate to have assistants who also become my friends. Valerie is no exception! She joined our team last January and I'm thrilled to have her with us.

Valerie calls herself Seamstress Interruptus. So appropriate considering she is the mother of not one, but TWO sets of twins!

That being said, I felt very honored that she felt inspired enough by my 1960's Mad Men Inspired Dress Refashion post to take some of her precious time to try this herself. 

Since she doesn't have her own blog, I thought I'd share her refashion with you.

She started with this vintage dress she found at a yard sale. 

Fit her somewhat like a potato sack. But the fabric is fantastic!

 So she refashioned it into this:

I think her new dress is so flattering and beautiful on her.

You can see exactly how she did it here at The Renegade Seamstress

Enjoy your day!

Beth

Women's Dresses from Men's Polos

I love making dresses out of men's polos, mostly because they're sooo comfortable.  If I'm on vacation doing touristy things for the whole day, that is what I wear- I can look nice, get some air circulating in the skirt, and not have anything restrictive on.  I've taken a few that I've made down to a consignment shop down the street and they've sold.  Here are two recent ones:

The one above has a halter neck, and the one below has trim on the sleeve openings made from the green striped shirt.  It also has a belt made from the striped shirt.

Thanks for looking!

Let's Shift Again

I originally made this shift as a mini long, long ago (needless to say, it no longer fit):

my old mini shift...

For this time around, I opened up the side seams and removed the sleeves to recut them to fit.  I added side inserts of an electric blue fabric scrap I had on hand:

with blue side inserts and...

I also added some length to the sleeve hem and dress hem with that electric blue fabric, using it all in the process:

sleeve and hem extensions...

But I still wanted pockets.  I spied - on top of my blue scrap pile - this perfect Hawaiian print!  (yes, I have my small scraps of fabric in bins by color):

...plus big ole patch pockets!

I had just enough for two big patch pockets.  It made the dress and I very happy! 

To see me wearing it, check out Project Minima at Let's Shift Again.

Shirt Dress Refashion + An Easy Boxy Sleeve Fix

This dress was a $1 garage sale find - bought mainly because I liked the color.

A few snips and new hems and here's my dress now:

Something I'm much more likely to wear~

I removed the sleeves and shoulder doo-dads.  Re-hemmed the sleeve openings and then chopped off about 6 inches and hemmed the bottom.

But I was still left with really boxy shoulder/sleeves.

Luckily there's a really easy fix for that

Before and After

See my blog for a quick tutorial for this shoulder fix

Man's Shirt to a Fun Beach Dress

Need a new dress for the beach?

Start with a large man's shirt.

Turn it around backwards, the buttons will now be in the back.

 Cut new bodice length and cut new neckline.

Cut off the sleeves, pin and sew side seams to fit. 

Using fabric from sleeves, make a new waistband.

Now you've got a new beach dress:

For the full photo tutorial, come on over and see me at

The Renegade Seamstress

Beth

I don't always shop retail...

...but when I do, I ALWAYS make this funny face:

 

 Yup.  My sleep deprived, slightly cross-eyed, "hope I secured my camera well enough so it doesn't fall and break like the last one" look.  

I bought this little ditty eons (read: I don't really remember) ago at a popular clothing chain that rhymes with "Sold Gravy."  Now in my defense, I was actually in "Sold Gravy" in an attempt to find Little Guy some adjustable shorts because he literally grows like a weed (a giant weed, I might add), and there just so happened to be an additional 50% off clearance promotion.  Let's face it, I'm a creature of habit.  Of course I loved the girly print and color combo, and the fit was surprisingly okay, albeit a bit long.  With plans to shorten and utilize for church, I filed the dress in the back of my closet where it was abducted by the closet gods, never to be seen until 2 days ago.  Go figure.

 Finished product bound to make "Sold Gravy" proud.

More details on this little refash here on my bloggity boo.

Toodles,

Maui Girl

T-Shirt Recycling!

Look at the pile of t-shirts I had sorted out from my closet!

What perfect little paradise for a re-fashionista! Loads of projects are coming up :-)
For the first one, I chose these three shirts:

...and turned them into that:

Many more pictures and a few step-by-step pictures are at my Blog: Of Dreams and Seams. It was ridiculously fast and easy. I also have the next project all ready to go, so I will be posting again soon.
Best to all of you, and thank you for all your inspirations here at this fabulous Blog!
Katja

Refashioned Refashions!

Hiya! I have a habit of refashioning my clothes more than once..... This dress was the final result of a previously refashioned top & dress!

1st I had a this thrifted top:

but the sleeves were too poofy! so I took them out:

But still wasn't in love with it...
Then there was this dress which I wore quite alot once I'd chopped the long sleeves off but I decided it needed an update...

So then I combined the two & now I have one very sweet lil dress:

 made with love by hulibug