Fastest Refashion EVER!

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Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything!  Life just gets a little chaotic at times and I find it’s my creative outlet that winds up taking the back burner.

I’ve been a little distracted as sadly, our poor elderly dalmatian fell ill this week.  We were preparing ourselves for the worst, but things have taken a turn he seems to be bouncing back!  We’re not out of the woods yet, but are optimistic that we get to have more time with the old boy.

Now that things have settled down a bit I had some time to go through my “to be refashioned” bin (which is getting dangerously empty by the way!) and found this skirt:

Recognize the shirt??

Not hideous, but not the most exciting thing in the world.  I supposed there’s nothing blatantly wrong with this skirt, but I’m just not a fan of wearing long skirts in general.

Anyways, this is probably the fastest, easiest refashion I’ve ever done.  Not only that, it’s a BOGO and it’s no sew!  Bonus!

So, to back-track a little, I was in my favorite (but pricey) athletic wear store recently and fell in love with this scarf.Soooo cozy!  I’ve seen a tonne of people wearing these scrumptious looking, giant sized infinity scarves and I have coveted them.  But with a price tag of (eek!) $78, there was no way this scarf was coming home with me.  Sadly for me (but happily for my wallet!) I left the store empty handed.

Enter the skirt.

I paid all of $1.75 for this bad boy and it was the simplest refashion EVER.  All I did was make one big chop.

Chop!

That’s it.

No, seriously.

I had my cozy over-sized infinity scarf for less than two bucks.

But wait, it didn’t end here.  I kept the top portion and used it as this cute skirt:

Bonus skirt!

So really, my new scarf and skirt cost me less than $1 each!  Score!

 

Sooooo glad he’s feeling better!

 

2-for-1 Cozy Refashion

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It’s a BOGO refashion!

Since we’re settling into the chilly fall months, I decided to refashion this cozy but rather <yawn> dull knit skirt.

Zzzzzz….

The only thing it had going for it (besides putting me to sleep) was it’s super soft knit fabric.  You know, the kind that has slightly fuzzy layer to it?  According to the label it has a bit of cashmere in it.  Bonus!

I asked Hubby to guess what I was going to make with this and he said shirt.  It wasn’t my original plan, but it got me thinking.  Shirt?  Why not?

I started out by snipping about 6 inches off the bottom.

Snip!

I wasn’t sure how the knit fabric would behave after cutting.  I had a vision of the whole thing becoming an unraveled mess.  Luckily it behaved just like t-shirt fabric.  With a bit of stretching it just became a rolled edge.  No hemming required!

I turned my skirt/shirt around to make the waist band the bottom.  I pinned the raw edge about 5 inches in from each side.  I used safety pins because the fabric was super slippery and straight pins kept falling out.

Pinned!

I took it to my sewing machine and stitched about two inches on either side of the pins on each side.  These would become my sleeves.

I stretched out the edges to get the fabric to roll.  And that was it!  The result was this cute and cozy dolman sleeve shirt.

Much more exciting than the boring skirt!

But wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a 2-for-1 refashion??

Remember the piece I cut of the bottom?  I stretched it out to get the same rolled effect on the edge and was left with this cozy infinity scarf!

Cozy!

(Hey, remember those jeans??)

There you have it!  A 100% no-waste refashion!  Sweet!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me! – A no-sew refashion…

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This refashion is for everyone out there that keeps telling me that they would love to refashion but can’t sew.  After this you will have no excuse!

It started off as this awesomesauce silk shirt:

YIKES!!

I’ll admit, it’s pretty ugly as it stands.  It had these crazy blingy buttons on the cuff and at the collar.

Bling-Bling!

And what is with those sleeves?? They would be perfect for my aspiring career as a circus ring master!

I really liked the Asian inspired pattern on the rest of the the top and it was real silk, so I was compelled to pick it up for a steep $3.  My original intention was to make another kimono style top like this one.  But I hadn’t gotten around to it yet and I needed something to wear for my birthday dinner. (Happy birthday to me!!)

First order of business was to get rid of those awful shoulder pads.  This was easy as they were attached with velco.  (Classy!)  Then I removed the blingy buttons.

I started by doing up about half of the buttons from the bottom up.  I slipped it on with my arms through the neck hole like this:

Gasp! So risqué!

I turned it around and tucked the collar in.

Back-to-front!

Then I tied the sleeves at the back.  You’ll want to tie it as tight as possible so you’re “new” top doesn’t slip down.

Tie it up!

Remember that scary looking blouse at the beginning?  Not so scary now!!

Voila!

I was all set for a dinner out with friends!  It could have been a dress from the front, but it came up a bit too high in the back to maintain any sort of decency.  So I paired it with a pair of dark wash skinny jeans.

Note, I’m drinking the BEST CESAR EVER! It has a huge pickle spear, a tomato and 2 marinated shrimp!! YUMMERS!

Birthday fun with some beautiful ladies!

I might do something else with this top at a later time, but for now I’m enjoying it like this!

 

 

The Blue Jumpsuit

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When I was shopping at my local charity thrift shop, I stumbled upon this number and got really excited:

Oh yeah!

I know what you’re thinking.  You think I’m nuts.  You think that I’ve gone completely off my refashion-rocker.  I posted the above picture on my facebook page, and it was said by a reader that I look like I’m about to “infiltrate an 80s ER”.  I actually have to agree.  But rest assured, I will make this piece cool!  There is just something awesome about taking something this terrible and seeing the potential for something better.  And hey, I couldn’t possibly make it any worse, right?

I started off by making some amputations.

Double chop!

Then I got rid of the terrible, misshapen shoulder pads.

Misshapen or not, the pads gotta go!

I broke out my seam ripper and got to work un-stitching the crotch.

Un-stitched!

I folded the whole piece in half lengthwise and pinned down the front and back of where I un-stitched.  Then I chalked where I wanted to sew.

Pinned and chalked.

Once I finished sewing the new seams I cut out the bulk.  Then I trimmed along the bottom to make sure it was even.  I left the hem raw as this piece was made of t-shirt fabric, which doesn’t fray.

I threw on a belt and here is the finished product!

Ugly jumpsuit no more!

It even has pockets.  How cool is that?

 

Denim Diet

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Today’s refashion comes from my own closet.  I’ve had these jeans for EVER.  I wore them to death back in my college days which was several years ago a while back.  I loved these jeans.  They are super soft and have just the right amount of stretch.  I haven’t worn them in quite some time because they are just a little too “flared” in the leg for my current tastes.

I just couldn’t bring myself the part with such a good fitting pair of jeans, so they sat in my closet untouched.  At first I was afraid to attempt to refashion them because I didn’t want to end up ruining them.  Then I realized I never wear them as is, so worse case scenario I would be stuck with a pair of jeans that I don’t wear, which was already the case anyhow.

These jeans needed to lose some weight, so off I went.

I started out by grabbing my current favorite pair of jeans for reference.  I laid them over top of the old ones.

Old faves, meet new faves!

I used chalk to trace the shape of the new faves on to the old faves.  Then I pinned.

These jeans are about to lose some serious weight!

I ran it through my machine, following the chalk line.

I did this for each leg.

They ended up being a bit long for skinny jeans (I don’t like my skinnies to be too bunchy in the ankles), so I hemmed them up by about an inch and a half.

Here are my new skinny jeans!

They were perfect for a fall walk at the beach!  I think they’ll be great to wear with boots too. :)