Polka Dot Skirt Refashion

Sometimes I start to go about a refashion, I get all in the groove, and then I have to step back and say "What. What are you doing.Why are you doing this."

This refashion, my friends, was one of those cases.

I got this skirt from the Goodwill for a dollar and although floor-length button up skirts scream high fashion, I thought it would be good to change it up.

The weird thing about this skirt though was that even though it had a buttoned waist, it also had an elastic waist band which was still entirely too big for my waist. So I decided to do the most back-asswards thing I could think of to fix this situation.

(Get psyched for some really bad pictures in terrible lighting aw yeah.)

I started off by unbuttoning the entire skirt so that it was completely open (that's attractive). I then used my pinking shears to separate the waist band from the skirt itself, leaving about an inch of seam allowance.

I then measured the waist band against my own waist, pinned off the extra room on each side, and then sewed the elastic down so that the entire thing felt comfortable.

With the remaining fabric, I compared it to my body and decided that I wanted it at more of a knee-length, rather than a floor length. So I cut a few inches off the top of the skirt (so that I wouldn't have to re-hem the bottom) and ran a gathering stitch along that top edge.

All I had left to do was reattach my waist piece to the body piece of the skirt, which I did by using the gathers to manipulate the body into being the same length as the waist.

And now I am a beautiful polka-dotted baby bird who still doesn't know how to pose for pictures. Fly away baby bird-- off to your destiny.

In retrospect, I supposed I could have just, you know... hemmed the skirt and took the waist in normally, but at the time, this method made more sense to me. I had to take the waist in a lot, and I was afraid that if I just sewed down the sides, the skirt would be too clingy. Hence the cutting off the waist and gathering the bottom. At least this way, the skirt stayed a little fuller. Ah well.

Has anyone one else had this sort of refashioning situation before? Where you literally have to be like "Woah.What."
Because I feel like that happens to me at least once during the course of every sewing project haha.


Linkin' up:
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DIY Pleated Skirt

What up, homedogs?

So I recently just rediscovered some pictures I took of a project that I did back in the spring, back when I was first trying my hand at this whole "sewing thing."

Now, as it should be abundantly clear by now, I'm not the best seamstress. I'm more the "oh my gosh let's pretend we're on Project Runway-just start making things up-SEWING MACHINE GO" kind of seamstress. So needless to say, there are plenty of ways to improve on this project. But I thought I would share anyway in case you were interested in what I did :] All you need is 2 yards of cotton fabric and then BOOM. Skirt.

Step One: First things first, I measured my hip/waist region, since I wanted the top of the skirt to sit somewhere in that general vicinity. Depending on where you want your skirt to rest, this would determine the exact measurement you use. I ended up selecting 30 inches as my magic number, then added another inch for seam allowance. But that measurement will come in handy in just a sec-- FIRST first, I should mention that I threw my fabric on the floor like a real sewing champ and cut the whole piece in half lengthwise, which determined the overall length of my skirt.

Step Two: Going back to my magic number of 31 inches, I began pleating my skirt back and forth in one inch pleats... kind of like making little Z's with the fabric, lining the edge of one pleat up with the next. I'm sure y'all already know much more about pleating than me though :]

Step Three: THEN CAME THE NON-OPTIONAL PART. I had Kitty assist me in pleating because cats know hella-lot about that kind of thing.

Step Four: I kept on pleating until I got to my magic number of 31 inches.

Step Five: Then, to keep everything in place, I did a quick basting stitch across the top of the pleats.

Step Six: Next, I cut out a piece of fabric that was 4 inches by 31 inches. After folding the right sides together, I sewed down the bottom long edge, then turned it back right-side out.

Step Seven: Finally, I tacked the waistband to the top of the pleats, then stitched it down for good. In retrospect, I would have done this differently, like instead of just sewing it down, I would have sewn the tops of the pleats inside of the waistband [but I can't words right now so that probably doesn't make sense]. But mostly I would have finished my edges first. FINISH THOSE EDGES, YO. For real. Because that looks like a hot mess right now, I realize.

Then as the final finishing step[which I forgot to photograph], I sewed the the skirt together into a proper skirty-circle and put a zipper in the back.

And just like that, we have skirty-goodness. Because who uses a pattern anyway? Oh yeah, normal people... oops.


Ah well, have a pleasant Thursday!
Linkin' up hurr and hurr.

Grey Striped Skirt Refashion

So, my motto as of late has been "Becca. You need to not be lazy."
But then again.... I haven't really been listening to that motto.

But despite my laziness I still have a quick refashion to share:

I love how simply shortening an item of clothing can completely breathe new life into it. Like, it never ceases to amaze me.

SO GREATY GREAT. It's like we just did the time warp and now we're magically back in this decade.

This started off as a wool [ish? I'm not sure] skirt that was just a little too long for my liking. And all I had to do was make a big ol' chop then hem it all up. Simple as that!

BOOM. 'Nother refash in the bag, yo.



Linkin' up Here and Here