Refashion Runway Season Two: Week 2, Pantone 2013 Emerald Green

Have you ever Googled a color?

 

Only twice in my life, have I ever.

Once for a bride's maid dress,

and the second to find out what in the world 'Pantone 2013 Emerald Green' was!

 

Green and I don't get along well together,

so I was very relieved to see that this particular green was more of a teal-green,

as compared to the St. Patrick's Day green I had in mind.

 

And to my further surprise, it wasn't as hard to come by as I thought it might be.

Still, it amazed me how challenging this project was...probably on the count

that green doesn't naturally conjure up my inspiration.

 

None the less, after lots...and lots...and lots of brainstorming and reworking,

I came up with a lacy maxi skirt, made from a dress, shirt and an old curtain!

 

 

 

 

I started with the dress first, which was a wee too snug all around.

 

 

 

The skirt and bodice were two separate pieces, so there was no chopping involved...just lots of ripping.

 

 

Once that was done, I took some measurements for my waist,

then measured and marked accordingly on the bottom portion of the dress bodice.

 

 

 

 

After chopping it off, I folded the raw edges together, right side out,

and sewed it up.

 

 

Then I pinned the band to the raw edge of the bottom part of the dress.

 

 



 

 

This is what is looked like.

Now I had a skirt...albeit a rather, short and plain one.

 

Not to worry,

I'm not finished with it yet!

 

 

Moving on, I delimbed  my green shirt and chopped off the upper half,
right were the arm hole starts.

 

 

 



Once that was all chopped up, I was left with this piece...perfect for the bottom tier of my maxi skirt.

But before I attached that to the other skirt piece, I had something else in store.

 

 



 

 

There resided in my refash-stash a long, beautiful curtain
that had the most lovely of scalloped edges.

It was meant to be a skirt!

I did some measuring to get my length, then chopped off what I needed.

 

 

In order to get all of the width I could, I made sure to seam rip the folded side seams.

 

 

 

Then I pinned the edges together and sewed them down,

creating a tube like the rest of my skirt tiers.



 

 

While I had the lace under the machine, I had sewn some gathering stitches

at either side- when I pinned the lace to my bottom green tier, I lined these

gathered sections up with both of the side seams on my green skirt tier.

 





Once it was all pinned, I basted the two layers together.

 

Now it was time to connect the two tiers!
This is what it looked like after all the sewing.
 

 

 

 

To add a little interest, I sewed a few rows of lace

down the center of the skirt.

This required a little unpicking at the bottom and top in order to

get the lace inserted into the seams, but it wasn't too difficult.

 

Add a couple of matching buttons, and it was a wrap!!

 

 

The buttons and lace add so much, in my opinion.

Here you can see the gentle falling of the lace where it was gathered at the sides.

The waist band was so easy, but gives it a great finished look!

 

 

I really enjoy the length of this skirt.

Not only does the bottom lace panel look so pretty, but it gives the skirt a lovely weight!

 

 

And it was warm.
Very warm.
Don't be fooled by the cardigan, things are still plenty warm here in Texas!
I was roasting while taking these pictures.
So why wear the cardi?
One word. Mosquitos!
We recently had a scrumptious, cloudy, rainy day!
It was heavenly.
The resulting mosquitos?
Not so much.





Aaannnd a couple shots that have nothing to do with the skirt.
The sunset was so beautiful, my photographer had to capture it.

 This gives me the perfect excuse to direct your attention to the cute little flower pin
I made with some of the scraps!
I think it ties the whole look together, don't you?

And there you have it, week 2 completed!
Be sure to cast your vote for your favorite refashion this week!


Refashion Runway Season Two: Week 1, Plaid

I love plaid.
I did not, however, love this outfit...

When I first saw this poor ensamble in our local thrift store,

I fell in love with the colors. Rich, deep tones are my favorite.

But the fit and style were terrible- so I left it alone.

For several months it languished alone and unwanted on the rack...

 then I learned how to sew!

I quickly snatched that baby up (at a bag sale no less) amid a few questioning looks.

In my mind, this was too pretty a fabric to simple start hacking away at,

so I laid it aside until the day arrived that I could bring out

the beautiful potential lurking in those folds!

When I found out this week's Refashion Runway challenge was plaid,

I knew that day had come!

Like I said, I love plaid,

but I have to admit there was just a little too much plaid going on.

So I decided to use a deep blue, tank top to break things up.

It had some lovely princess seams which made it perfect for a dress bodice.

Both the skirt and tank were too small.

The skirt was an easy fix, I simply removed the waist band and took out the side zipper.

Letting out those pleats created lots of extra breathing room.

As I started turning things inside out and tearing them apart,

I realized this was a home sewn garment.

The skirt was fully lined and even had pockets!

Removing the side zipper had resulted in a gaping hole,
so I pinned and stitched it closed.

Next, it was onto the bodice of the dress!

The tank top I chose was way too small,

but not to worry, I knew exactly how to fix that!

Using my handy-dandy seam ripper, I separated the front from the back by tearing apart
the seams at the sides.

This is what it looked like.

I measured how much extra girth I needed to add,
then divided that by two and cut two long strips from the back
of the plaid bag shirt.

I paid special attention to matching up the plaid so both strips
were the same.

I then pinned those sections to the sides of the tank top.

After hemming some raw edges and sewing the pieces together,
this is what it looked like!

With the bodice done,

 it was time to connect the skirt.

I'll admit, this was the longest part of the process.
I pinned, stitched, tore it out, and repined at least three times.
Once I finally had the length of the bodice and positioning of the pleats
as I wanted them, I sewed it all together and moved onto making a sash.

Using the waist band I had removed from the skirt,
I laid it out on the front piece of the shirt, lining up the plaid so it would match.

Then I cut it out!

There was pinning and ironing, and some folding right-side in,
until I created another band just like the original.
I stitched them together, then stitched them closed.

Now that I had a cute sash to tie around my dress,
I figured I had better add some sort of sleeves.

I messed around with a few different ideas,
cutting pieces from an ugly scrap fabric I had laying around,
but it just wasn't clicking.

Then I noticed this plaid scrap in the shape of a triangle,
and the perfect idea hit me!

I measured to make sure the length was right, cut off the ends accordingly,
then laid out my triangle onto another remaining piece and cut out a second triangle.

It was then that I noticed the plaid matched up perfectly!

I was just using the pieces I had, so this was completely unplanned!

This is what I call a 'God-smile'!

After my moment of 'awe',
 I set to work folding and hemming up all the sides of each triangle piece.

For the bottom of the triangle,
the edge I intended to attach to the straps of the tank top,
I did something a little different.
Not wanting a lot of bulk since it would be resting on my shoulder,
I zig-zagged the edge, then went back and straight stitched right along
the inner edge of the zig-zag.
I figured this would keep the fabric from fraying without the bulk of a folded hem.

To attach my triangular flutter sleeves,
I pinned them to the tank straps and stitched them down
right over the existing stitch lines.

Fwew!

After all that, I still had some scraps left over from the plaid shirt.

Now all I needed was a pair of boots...

And voila!

 I am in love with my new dress!

It even has the original pockets!

I love how the sleeves turned out,

and the plaid insert panels add a nice touch!

I know this pictures is out of focus...but I really like it.

One project down!
How many to go?
We'll see!

Head on over to The Renegade Seamstress and vote for your favorite!