Green Velvet Coat - A Refashion (Part One)

As most of you know, I really love refashioning and repurposing old and ugly clothes.  So, I wanted to share with you the work in progress of the refashioning of this old, dark green velvet dress.  It's a thrifted relic of a by-gone age from my older sister's younger years, and is at this point very, very worn.

So, though it is a pretty dress, it is much too yucky to be worn as-is, and I don't have any use for such a dress anyway. But looking at all that gorgeous green velvet in the skirt, I knew I had plenty of fabric to work with to create something new out of the dress.

I'd been playing with the idea of making a winter coat for myself for quite a while, using the same pattern I made my "battle Tauriel" dress out of, with some adjustments, of course, to make it a more modern piece.  While I was staring at this dress, trying to come up with some brilliant idea for it, I remembered that coat idea, and realized how cool a green velvet coat could be (something like this / this)...

See, I've recently become obsessed with the haute couture look, and have really wanted to try my hand at making something slightly "over the top" like that.  This velvet coat idea struck me as something that could be kinda couture-ish, which made me want to try it even more.

Now, keep in mind, I'm not finished with this coat yet.  I'm about half way through so far, and while I'm rather liking how it looks currently, it might look awful in the end.  If it does, we can all just have a good laugh over it when I post "Part Two" of this project.  Sound good?  Sounds good. ;D

Now that you've got all the exposition, it's time to plunge straight into my new project... The first thing to do was prep the skirt, so I could get the most out of the fabric.

Ripping out the gathers in the waist (it took f oreverrr).

Unfortunately, you can't iron velvet (because of how the fabric has a standing-up pile), so I just smoothed it out the best I could and started cutting out pattern pieces for the top of the coat.

After a few hours of work, I had all the main bodice pieces cut out, pinned, and ready to go.

Next, over the course of a few days, I did the sewing for those eight pieces...

After that was done, it was time to move on to the sleeves.  Getting these prepped is always easy, and I love the shape of this pattern's sleeves so there wasn't any cause for alterations.  After sewing them up, I pinned them to the main bodice.

And that's as far as I've gotten with the coat as of now!  It's not much to look at (lacking a collar, lining, and the peplum hem I'm planning to add to lengthen it), but I think it's a good start.  Hopefully I'll get this thing finished soon so we can all find out whether making a green velvet coat was a good idea or not... ;D

Bridesmaid Dress to Pleated Skirt Refashion + Tutorial

So, this skirt's ancestor has been in my fabric stash for a while now... in the form of a very boring bridesmaid dress that I had thrifted for a buck one day last winter.  It wasn't until a couple days ago that I fiiiinally got around to turning it into something useful -- a fun, pleated skirt!

Cute, right?  I love the simplicity + the bit of retro vibe. ;) It's such a fun addition to le closet, and is totally wearable in all seasons (which is always a plus!).

And now I will walk you through how I made my refashioned skirt, and show you how to do it yourself!  If you want to make a pleated skirt with plain ol' fabric, I recommend this tutorial by Merrick's Art.

So, here's the dress that I started out with,  Pretty -- but also pretty boring.  I loved the skirt and the color, but that was it.  So, like I said: for a dollar, I couldn't really go wrong. ;)  Grab your own boring dress, and prepare to create!

1. Chop off the desired length of the skirt, leaving the bottom hem to save you some sewing.

I cut off a bit too much, as usual. :P

2. Rip out the entire center back seam, then pin it back together. This is in preparation for the zipper.

3. Rip out the zipper from the top of dress, which we will then reuse in the skirt!

4. Start pleating.  This is going to take a bit of trial and error to get the right fit and look, as the width of the skirt and the size of your waist will affect the amount of fabric you can take in with the pleats. I made 5 pleats total, averaging about 4 inches in width and taking in four inches each, with the inset between the last two on the zipper seam. To keep everything symmetrical, I used the seams on the skirt as references for places to make the pleats.

5. Once you're happy with how the pleats look, baste to secure.

6. Time to cut out our waistband. From the leftover bodice fabric, cut three pieces, fold in half lengthwise, then cut to a uniform desired width. I made mine about 1.5 inches wide.

7. Sew the two shorter back pieces to the longer front piece, pin to the skirt, and sew.

8. Lastly, put in your stolen zipper. If you don't know how to do this, follow this easy tutorial.

9. Don't forget to iron your new skirt out, and then you're finished! Enjoy your fabulous new skirt. :D

A Sunday in Spring Circle Skirt + Tutorial

I'm kind of late hopping on the DIY circle skirt bandwagon, but... these skirts are my new favorite thing for alot of reasons: They're simple and quick to make, super customizable and versatile, and oh soooo pretty.

(Also, I chopped my hair off. Soooo whaddya think, whaddya think..? I kind of love it. :D)

I finally whipped a circle skirt up for myself last week, out of the fabric that I was originally going to use for making Arwen's coronation gown. I was becoming so depressed by seeing this gorgeous fabric going to waste, just sitting at the bottom of my fabric box for months and months... and since I have no plans in the near future for making that dress (even though it is beautiful, I don't really have a use for it anymore), I decided to finally cut into those yards of crepe back satin and make a 50s-inspired skirt.

Besides, that green color just screamed all things Spring, and I felt a major need to be wearing it. Because Spring is my favorite season -- weather, temperatures, and blooming flowers and trees. It perfectly represents new beginnings and God's beautiful creation.

But, enough talk; now for the tutorial so you can make a skirt for yourself! :)

1. First, fold a square of fabric in half twice, so you've got four quarters of fabric stacked on top of each other. The size of your square will determine your length, so keep this in mind when choosing your fabric width. Mine was 56" wide.

2. Next, using a tape measure, measure the same length from the double folded point of your fabric out to the edges, going around the circle and marking with a pencil or fabric marker as you go to create a curved line. Repeat this process for the waist, using this equation to find how large you need to make it: waist measurement / 3.14 / 2 = radius.

3. Now cut your waistband. Length: half of your waist measurement + 1 inch for a 1/2 inch seam. Width: 6 inches works well, but you can adjust this for a wider or smaller band. You'll fold this piece in half width-wise, so you don't have to make an extra seam at the top.

4. With right sides together, sew the waistband together to form a circle, then sew this (make sure it's folded over) to the skirt, also right sides together and with raw edges matching.

5. Next step (which can be omitted if you're using stretch fabric), cut part way down the back of the skirt and insert your zipper.

6. Finally, hem the skirt as desired, and you've got yourself a gorgeous new skirt to spin in! ;)

Ugly Knit Shirt Refashion

Firstly -- you must forgive me for going all M.I.A. on ya'll for 10 days. It wasn't intentional, I promise! ;)

In that time, I've been up to quite a lot. And the refashion in this post is one of them!

I haven't done one of these in much too long, and I've had this shirt hanging around for a while - a very out-of-fashion, ribbed knit, long sleeved shirt. A hand-me-down from one of my older sisters. ;)

Here's where we begin:

Yes, it is wearable as it is, but it could be much much better. The big thing was those sleeves... so awkward. The fit wasn't the greatest either.

I first picked out what I did like about it: the color, and the cute lace lining the collar. Other than that... meh. So, time to get to work!

I decided to make the sleeves 3/4 length:

Sewing!

Sleeve hem completed:

Then I took it in about a 1/2 inch along each side, including the armhole (which were a tad large) and the upper part of the sleeve.

Aaaaand finished! :D

P.S. Apologies for this post being kinda quick. Lotsa business going on, and not enough time to blog. :p I've got several cosplay posts in the draft folder (as usual, right xD) - but for now, here's a little tease... :D

Jean Messenger Bag Refashion

I feel like the name of this post should actually just be "I made dis." xD

Hah! But, it really is a refashion. A jean refashion! Because I've got wayyyyy too many pairs in my sewing box... ;)

It's made out of the bottom half of one pant leg. I opened up the bottom seam and sewed the seam allowance together for a boxy sort of bottom. I then hemmed the flap thing, added a pocket (and reinforced the pocket edges with nail polish so they won't fray -- because I'm just resourceful like that ;D), and made a four-strand braid of various yarns for the shoulder strap.

I wasn't quite satisfied with it yet, however. Something was missing. It was just too plain.

Sooooo I rummaged around in my sewing box a bit, and found this pretty beaded ribbon that I'd had for ages and ages, but that I'd just not known what to do with. Well, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to finally put it to use!

After sewing the trim on in zig-zags across the front flap of the bag, it was complete. And voila! A new purse... bag... thing. ;D

A Few Recent Projects [of varying forms]

Ok. This blog post has been a draft for almost two weeks now, and now I'm finally sitting down to make myself finish it. xD I promise I'll try not to take so long between posts in the future -- but, as I'm sure you're well aware, life happens. ;)

So anyway... It's been going well in my corner of the world. Last week was spring break, which was lovely and very relaxing, with friend get-togethers, silly games of "this or that" with my sisters, and, of course, a few projects, which I'm going to share with ya'll in this post! :D

Also during the week, Spring had begun to creep in with all it's glories: warm sunshine, green foliage, and cool breezes.

But now, school and the winter weather have returned... *sigh.* Well, life goes on, and the wait for spring continues. It'll be here soon. (:

So, about those projects I mentioned...

The first is this leather jacket that I thrifted for 2 bucks. It is seriously awesome... BUT it's a women's size medium, and I wear an extra small/small, so some alterations were necessary.

Before...

After!

It was a pretty simple fix, it just took a bit of time to complete. I just had to take in the sleeves and sides a bit (ok, alot xD). Bonus: it's now perfect for my next little cosplay project... more news concerning that in a later post! No, I won't take two weeks this time... xD

One other really simple alteration project I had was a maxi skirt from Goody's -- for $6! Hooray for clearance and coupons, right?! The skirt was a small, but the waist band was rather large on me and stretched out a little (hence the clearance). But it wasn't anything a simple seam couldn't fix -- and it was six stinkin' bucks! I just couldn't refuse. ;)

The last one I want to share with ya'll was something I whipped up on a lazy afternoon, when I was in desperate -- yes, desperate -- need of a project.

It's made of cardboard (lols xD), black satin, cream chiffon, vinyl stick-on letters, and some silver trim left over from my Arwen costume from a couple years ago. I basically just made it up as I went... because you know that's how I roll. ;)

And, in case any one didn't know, that's a quote by Aragorn from LOTR. ;)

Oh, and that cosplay project I mentioned? Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. You'll hear more soon.

Here's a hint. ;)