Behind the 'Seams' of Refashion Runway, a Look Back

At the beginning of Refashion Runway,

I purposed to at least make it to the Peplum challenge.

But God gave me the continued grace and inspiration to far exceed those expectations!

 

  I was SO ecstatic when I first found out Beth from Renegade Seamstress

had selected me to be a part of the second season of Refashion Runway!
Little did I know I would make it to the final round and place Fourth Overall!

There wasn't a single week in this competition that I didn't do something I hadn't done before.

As a result, I feel my skills have more than doubled since I first started.
 

Here is a little look back at each one of the six challenges,
and a little 'behind the scenes' info you didn't get in the previous blog posts.

 

 

Week 1, Plaid
 

I was running off of pure adrenaline for this project!

On Friday I got word that I had been accepted into the contest, and my project was done by Sunday.

I already had a piece on hand to refashion, which made it that much quicker.
And honestly, it was not cool enough to be wearing these boots...I was baking!
This is Texas after all.
 

 

Week 2, Emerald Green

This one took me the longest out of all six projects to complete.

I just couldn't get a vision for this piece.

I started working on it still in the first week of competition, and I didn't get it finished

until the following Wednesday, so about nine days!

A lot of that time, it just sat there and I wondered what to do with it.

It is the piece I least like of all my RR projects.

This one came together through prayer and encouragement.

I dubbed it The Green Monster.
 

 

Week 3, Peplum
 

This was only the second peplum I've made,

and really, I was NOT impressed with the first one.

But it gave me a clear vision on what I DIDN'T like about peplums,

so I was able to change up the look for this RR project and up with something I did like.

This was a pretty smooth project, I didn't have any bumps or setbacks with this one.

As far as trying new things went, this one probably ranked up at the top.

This was really the first time I had drafted a pattern before.

I also had never sewn a button hole the right way with my machine,

AND I had never used bias tape to finish off inside seams (similar to a Hong Kong seam).

When it was finished, I felt pretty proud, it was one of the most classy pieces I've made so far.
And it was in one of my favorite colors.

 

Week 4, Leather
 

This one scared me.

At the onset of the competition, I knew this one would be a biggy!

I tried to focus on one week at a time, not thinking ahead until I was finished with the present job.

But this one kept sneaking into my thoughts.

Honestly, I wasn't sure that I would make it to this round when I began the competition,

so it required a special thrift store trip to find a leather piece to work with.

If the Emerald challenge was the hardest inspirationally, the leather one was the hardest technically.

It nearly got the better of me, but I told myself that if others could sew on leather, so could I!

It took a lot of research and some special tricks, but in the end I got it.
 

 

Week 5, Halloween
 

Coming off the leather project,
 I was going into the costume challenge with less than a full tank of emotional energy.
I had a hard time deciding on what I wanted to make,

and when I made the first of four thrift store stops, I had three different projects in my head.

I actually broke down into tears at Goodwill after more than an hour with still no clear direction.

I was still buying pieces on Monday, just four days before it was due!
 

Despite the bumpy start, I was able to settle on an idea, find what I needed, and get the project done.

There were more tears involved when I thought I had broken a zipper after three tries to get it sewn in, and there was more than once that I had to ask God for help. But it got done!

Up to this point, this was the latest I had worked into the week to complete my project,

finishing up on Thursday night!

I was still stressed though because we were supposed to get a bunch of rain the next day,

and I was worried about getting the pictures done.

As it turns out, the pictures I was most worried about turned out to be the most fun I had taking pictures! We got up early and had a great time freezing our hands off in the chilly dampness for a great shoot!
God is funny that way, isn't He?

 

 

Week 6, Winter White
 

 

Putting all niceties aside, this was kind of like my week of hell.

I had pushed long and hard with my costume project, and by this point, I was pretty much exhausted.

I got started late in the week (Tuesday, four days before deadline) because I was so worn out.

When I finally set myself to the task, I realized I had picked a very difficult fabric to work with.

What I wanted to do seemed pretty straight forward,
but the fabric made it three times harder and five times longer to get done.

The entire week I took two steps forward, one step back.

There were lots of tears. Lots of chocolate. And LOTS of support from my family.

But this week was honestly fueled by prayer and the shear grace of God.

I probably prayed hourly asking for clarity of mind
(I was making so many uncharacteristic mistakes), strength and support.
There was more than one day I was ready to give up and I seriously doubted

having a completed project to submit by the deadline.

On top of all that, I was getting sick with a cold my last two days of sewing.

But it happened.

I actually finished and God even gave me a wave of strength to cross over the finish line with a smile to show in the 'after' photos.
This top was pretty much my miracle piece!
 

 Finally, finally, I was finished with it.

Completely finished. No more projects to submit.

I had made it through the complete season of Refashion Runway!
 

Honestly, it didn't matter a whit what place I got, the real accomplishment was that

I had given my best, conquered every challenge and held my own amongst the company of

some extraordinarily talented women, all of whom had been doing this a lot longer than me!

 

And on top of that,

I met all of you!

 

Thank you to everyone who left comments, voted, and generally encouraged me each week!
 

Honestly, without my supportive family
and my very talented, patient brother who took all of the amazing photos,

AND without everyone's encouragement and comments

I would not have been able to make it as far as I did.

So here is to a very successful and unforgettable second season of Refashion Runway.
We did it, y'all!



Refashion Runway 2: Winter White

It is hard to believe this is the last week of Refashion Runway,

or as my family has dubbed it, ‘Runaway’, challenge!

 It is true, during this competition it was easy to let an idea runaway with me!

 

And that was certainly the case with this week’s Winter White project.

Let’s just say, I almost bit off more than I could chew and nearly chocked!

As a pretty new sewist (sewer…? seamstress…?),

I had never worked with silky fabrics before…until this week when I picked up

a huge blue top and a lovely cream blouse which was busting buttons at the bosom.

 I also had a 100% wool pleated skirt which I planned to spice up.

 

 

 

Just a heads up,

this was a very difficult project for me, I was pretty exhausted from pushing so hard last week,

and to top it off, I was fighting off a little cold/allergies.

Translated, this means there aren't very many process pictures.

I was rushing against time and really just wanted to get it done!

Plus I was making it up as I went along!

Not to mention that everything that could possibly go wrong, did.

 

 

I had a vision for a two toned sort of illusion top,

 so I set to work tearing apart my shirts.

 

 

 

 

One of the shoulders was open, so I took off the buttons...

 

 

 

 

and the tie collar...

 

 

 

 

and the bottom hem, which had a small strip of elastic at one side,

and more buttons on the other.

 

 

 

 

Then I removed the sleeves and collar from the cream shirt.

 

 

 

And separated the front from the back.

 

 

 

 

Some experimenting followed, resulting in a curvy silhouette pattern piece.

I folded my shirt piece in half, laid the pattern on the fold

and cut along the outside curved edge.

 

 

 

 

After cutting, this is what I had.

 

 

 

Returning to my blue top, I sliced it up the middle.

This shirt was made with two layers,

 so I basted them along the cut edges in an attempt to try and keep things all together.

 

 



 

 

I know there was some math and figuring involved at this point,

but honestly, it is all a blur.

I basically laid the cream piece over one side of the blue top...

 

 

...then traced the line where I wanted to connect it.

 

 



 

 

This material was fray ca-raaazy! This meant I needed to do French seams on everything.

So, I pinned my pieces together, with the seam on the outside.

 

 

After sewing that first seam, trimming the edge,

then folding over and sewing again, this is what one completed side looked this.

 

This basic process was repeated for the other side.

 

 



 

 

At this point, I was still working with a very large shirt,

so I pinned on the sleeves (which fit) so I could see where they ended.

This gave me the guideline for how much I needed to take in at the sides.

 

 

 

 

Even after taking in the sides,

there was still a lot of extra bulk in the back on account of the gathered neckline.

I resolved this by adding a series of pleats in the small of the back.

 

 

 

 

I also pinned and sewed the shoulders together.

 

 

 

 

This made the neckline in the front a little too high,

so I measured, chopped some off,

then covered it with bias tape.

 

 

 

 

This was concealed under the blue tie collar that I reattached.

(This process was tricky, frustrating and involved, so I'll spare you the details.)

 

 

 

 

After all the fitting changes were made,

it was time to connect the sleeves in earnest.

 

 

Because the sleeves were also attached with a French seam,

they ended up a little shorter than they ought to be.

The shirt was a little too stuffy with long sleeves anyway,

so I chopped off some length and made them 3/4 sleeves.

 

 

 

 

This of course left a raw edge,

with I trimmed with some of the blue scrap which

I collected from the hem of the shirt.

 

 

 

 

I attached the blue strip just like you would attach bias tape.

 

Once my shirt was finally done (!!!)

I turned my attention to the cream skirt.

 

 

 

To spruce up my skirt,

I simply straight stitched about a dozen rows around the bottom of the hem in deep blue thread,

varying the distance between each to create the appearance of bands.

I measured how far up I wanted my stitching to start, in my case it was 3 inches.

Then I made tiny marks all the way around so I had a guide for my fist row of stitches.

 

This was the same stitching method I used on my peplum top.

I really like it, I think it adds so much to a piece!

I'm tempted to go through my closet and do this to all my skirts!

 

And here it is finished up and paired together!

 

 

 

Here is the back.

 

 

With the shirt untucked, here is a better view of the pleats.

 

 In this photo shoot,

I have the shirt tucked in because it looked better that way with the skirt.

But I made sure to keep the length of the shirt a bit longer, since I have a long torso.

This top would also look great untucked with a pair of jeans or nice slacks!

 

 I really like how the sleeves turned out, trimmed in blue.

I'm really glad too that I shortened the length.

 

 

And here is close up of the hem stitching on the skirt.



 

 

 

Believe it or not, this outfit took all…stinking…week!
I seriously underestimated working with this silky polyester fabric,

which had me scurrying frantically to finish up what I thought was going to be a simple project.

 All in all, I really like the way my outfit turned out,

and I’m more than thrilled that I still have my sanity intact!

 

Now, head on over to The Renegade Seamstress

and vote for your favorite Winter White refashion!

 

The overall winner and final placement of all four remaining

women will be determined by this week's scores and votes,

which will be announcement this Saturday!

Disney's Jane Costume, a Refashion

(If you are coming over from The Renegade Seamstress, keep scrolling down,

or click here to read my full post on the Halloween Challenge.)

 

G'day to you!

Recently I was given the challenge of refashioning an entire costume

for the competition Refashion Runway hosted by The Renegade Seamstress.

I had so much fun taking pictures of the finished product

that I decided it needed another post with more of the role play based pictures.

 

To see how I made this costume and what it was before, visit this post,

and don't forget to go vote for your favorite refashioned costume,

by clicking on this link!

 

 

 

You guys, seriously.

Look at my hair!

I was so proud that I was actually able to do something with it, and it turned out so good!

 



 

Tea?

 



 

Sketching...

 



 

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, OHHH dear."

 



 

Being dramatic...

 

 

 "It's very nice."

"Oh, thank you, I can't do a thing with it in this humidity though..."

 

  

 

"And daddy...they took my boot!"

 

"Things couldn't possibly get any worse..."
A disheveled Jane.
 

 

 And for fun,
here are some edited ones.

 

 

 

And my three favorite edits...