New Take on an Old Fave

I can't believe I did it.  I'd been considering doing it for some time, but I was really afraid.  But I finally did it.  I cut apart a dress that has been in my wardrobe since I was a Junior in High School.  That was 1995.  Like, before I knew the internet beyond AOL "You've Got Mail" even existed. 

I wore this dress regularly up until the end of summer of 2010.  Since then, it had lost its luster for me.  I'm not sure what happened, it just didn't do it for me anymore.  But I loved the fabric, and it had done me well for so many years, I just couldn't thrift or swap it.

I pinned this top months ago from How Joyful, and I knew it would be the inspiration for this dress refashion, if I could ever build up the courage to take a scissors to it.

See my note at the bottom??  I had plans.

I even had plans to use this shirring technique from Make It - Love It, but more about that later.

So without further ado, here was the original.

This was a Gap dress.  Check out the old school label:

I put it on and pinned the length that I wanted.  Once I cut it, I realized I could probably make a skirt out of the remaining fabric!

But that's for another post.

I tried it on, and I probably could have cut the top an inch longer in order to accomodate a double-fold hem.  It's not that it is a crop-top length by any means, but I like my camis/tanks to hang a bit below the waistband of my pants. 

I opted to do just a single-fold hem, which is so unprofessional, but how often do people come and examine your hems anyhow?

Also, the fabric is a nice rayon, and while very slippery, it doesn't fray too much.

Like I mentioned above, I originally planned to make a shirred gathered waist.  But after I hemmed the top and tried it on, I really loved how it hung on me.  The top was done!

I'm beyond pleased with how it turned out.  I was so afraid that I would regret cutting it apart and trying something new.  I will always love this fabric, and I'm so glad I have found a way to revive it and make it a permanent fixture in my wardrobe.

Striped Sweater Refashion

Pinterest really has a lot of awesome stuff, and has provided me with hours upon hours of drooling over food, fashion, home decor, but mostly the DIY tab.  I love it there.  I find so much inspiration of stuff to try (someday).  I try to be realistic and pin projects that I really think I could accomplish. 

I'm particularly fond of refashioning old clothes in to new garments to wear.  So when I stumbled across Merricks Art, I thought I had found my sister from another mister. 

There are a few pieces of my wardrobe I plan on refashioning.  I finally set to work on the first one.  I recieved a hand-me-down cardigan/scarf thingy...I don't really understand them. 

While I felt awkward trying to wear it, the knit was so soft, and I really dug the thick stripes.  It had to be transformed.  I originally thought - skirt - but changed my mind since horizontal stripes should never go around my lower half.  Plus, a knit skirt like that would get stretched out immediately after putting it on - Frump City, no bueno.

I went at this sans pattern, which is a huge challenge for me.  I also wanted this top to be a boatneck.  I had never made anything with a boatneck before, and here I was going at it without a pattern.

I cut the wings off this sweater - I don't know what else to call them.  To prevent the knit from unraveling, I zig-zag stitched the raw edge.

I didn't plan on the zig-zag causing the edges to stretch and ruffle.

I wasn't pleased about this, but I pressed on.  I pinned up the edges, and basted in about 5 inches, so I could gather the sides.

I gathered the basted edges, then sewed the raw edges down, turned it right-side-out, and tried it on.

It felt really flimsy, and I had not gathered enough on the sides - the boatneck was more like 80's off-the-shoulder.  I tried it on my dressform to assess the situation.

Not only was it flimsy, but I really didn't like the black hem stitching that was showing through the grey knit.  I tried it on about 12 more times before deciding it would not do.

I cut off the top grey stripe, and started over with the black stripe on top.  Instead of gathering the shoulders, I pinned some pleats to bring in the fabric, and to reduce the bulk.  To stablize the knit, I sewed bias tape to the right side of the raw edge, then folded it open and that became my seam allowance.

Thinking of the boatneck concept, I wanted to make sure the top would fit over my head, and not look too confining, so I left the back piece with a bit less pleating.  In hindsight, I should have just made the same amount of pleats, because it didn't look right with that extra few inches of fabric going around the back of my neck -- due to the bias tape, it was too rigid to drape or lay flat.

I sewed about 5.5 inches from the outside shoulder to the opening of the neckhole.  I ended up hand-stitching some additional pleats to take in the excess fabric around the back of the neck.

Once I was satisfied with the neck opening, I topstitched both sides, tacking down the bias tape, and giving it a polished look.

I stitched up the sides, and presto!  An awesome new look just in time for summer!

Check me out, trying to be discreet with my fancy new camera remote -- it's hard to take a shot without pointing that thing directly at the camera!