A $5 Thrifted Coat Refashion

Hello strangers from distant lands, friends of old... ;)

Meet Sylvie. ;)

So, today I'm featuring my first (successful) refashion!

But first, when I was in the middle of it, I realized I never introduced you all to my new friend, Sylvie!! :D

Now, who is Sylvie, you might ask?

The new dress form that I got for Christmas!!! :D She's a Dritz model, and works perfectly. Fully adjustable, and the color was a very pleasant surprise! ;)

But anyway, as of yesterday I hadn't done any legit project on her yet, so I was excited to try her out for real. :D  So, back to that refashion.

Oh, and in case you've never heard the term "refashion" before, it's basically altering old or ugly clothing, and turning it into something that you could actually wear. ;)

Yesterday, I spent a good 4 or 5 hours altering this bad boy... (Yeah, not exactly haut couture, right? :P)

(Ignore my dusty mirror... xD)

The first thing that needed to happen was to kill those shoulder pads... (WHY DID PEOPLE EVER THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO WEAR THOSE THINGS???? O.O)

BURN THEM WITH FIRE! ;)

I then removed all the buttons, and then sewed three of them back on farther over, to make it a bit more fitted -- and more stylish. ;)

Off...

...On...

Better already!

Next on the to-do list was altering the sleeves. They were much too big, and had some weird broad-ness still going on, even without the shoulder pads. :P

Alter alter...

We're getting there! :)

Aaaaand the next thing, was to take in the sides. Ended up being much more simple than I thought it would be, though I did have to seam-rip the lining to get to the actual coat. Seam ripping is literally THE BEST part of sewing. *Note the sarcasm.* ;)

Pinned and ready for sewing.

The only thing left to do was add three more buttons next to the others, for a stylish touch.

And voila! This coat refashion is complete!! :D

The finished product.

I'm super excited about how it turned out -- this was my first rather *successful* refashion! ;D Now I need a place to wear it... I'm thinking Walmart might be perfect... ;D

But one thing I can't decide, is should I make it knee length? Or keep it like it is? I honestly can't decide... let me know whatcha think in the comments! :D

And, of course, special thanks to Sylvie for being my little helper. ;) :D