Refashioned Upcycled Clothing

So-So Maxi To Fabulous Caftan Style Top!

November 25, 2014 By Mary Peterson 21 Comments

Hello Everyone!

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I am loving this comfortable printed caftan style top that began it’s life as a baggy busted maxi dress!

Here is the offending dress. You might not think it looks too bad, but trust me when I say that the fun print covers up a lot of sins in this picture. The pleats on the bodice were too deep and the bustline too low. When you put it on it looked like someone blew up the bodice with a bag of air. Not pretty! See how I saved it below.

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Step 1) Cut the bodice from the skirt

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Step 2) I put the bodice on my dress form and put the pleats at a more fashionable number and depth so the bodice would not poof out like a balloon.

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Step 3) I sewed the pleats down to keep them from shifting when I put the skirt back on.

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Step 4) I attached the skirt back onto the bodice at a more flattering tunic length after taking out some width. That way the top would lie flat across my stomach. In addition, I also raised the bustline to empire length. No more puffy bustline!!!! Yay!

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Let me know what you think!!!!

“til Later

Love Ya!

Mary

Chiffon and Silk Refashion

November 11, 2014 By Mary Peterson 26 Comments

Hello Everyone!

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Here is my latest AFTER without glasses so you can see my refashioned lashes, as well as this great blouse/tunic I refashioned over the weekend.

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I have been wanting to jump on this trend for a while now, and finally the perfect pieces presented themselves to me in the thrift shop. Below you see the two inspiration photos that got me thinking. I wanted to put these two ideas together in a way that works for my life. I love the chiffon see through pieces that have been appearing on different styles over the last few months and I believe I have married these 2 ideas in a perfect combination for me.

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Here are the two thrift shop pieces that made it happen. The first is a beautiful, lightweight, raw silk blouse. It was way too big, and I had already chopped off parts of the sleeves for another project

The second piece was a very ugly chiffon dress (bought strictly for the chiffon) with a printed branch across the waist YUCK!

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Here comes the tutorial:

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Step 1) First I cut off the sleeves and took out the 90’s shoulder pads.

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Step 2) I put the blouse on the form and fit my basic tunic/blouse pattern on the front.

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Step 3) Put the front down and cut. Put the fronts together and cut the other side to match.

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Step 4) Do the same process with the pattern on the backside of the blouse.

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Step 5) Sew the side seams leaving room at the bottom for possible slits in the side. At this time I was not too sure how long I wanted it to be.

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Step 6) Cut out sleeves from chiffon dress. Now I remember why I hated chiffon in design school. It is a very unstable wobbly fabric.

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Step 7) Cut a band the desired with for the sleeves and stitch it to the bottom of the sleeve.

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Step 8) Turn the cuff, press, pin and edgestitch the sleeve band

Step 9) Overlock the sleeve together and stitch on the sleeve cap to ease into the armhole.

Pin and baste the sleeves into place.

Step 10) I determined the length of my hem and finished it with a 5/8″ topstitch with 3 !/2″ side slits.

Let me know what you think!!!!

I love it and feel I am ready for any holiday parties that come my way!

‘Til Later

Love Ya!

Mary

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T-Shirt +Skirt= Refashion

October 25, 2014 By Mary Peterson 4 Comments

Hey Everyone!

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Fall is in the air! I am so excited. With that, I give you my last summer offering for a while.

Here is the AFTER of what used to be a t-shirt and a “Mullet” skirt.

Front view:

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Back view:

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These two pictures (with the fun already started) is where it all began. I have been totally inspired by all of the basic T-shirts I have been seeing with added chiffon layers. The possibilities are endless!

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TUTORIAL:

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Step 1) Cut the waistband off of the skirt

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Step 2) Put the T-shirt on the dress form. This style would be very difficult to do without having a dress form as you can drape and control how the chiffon falls as you pin. I will explain the white thread in a later step.

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Step 3) Pin the chiffon skirt in the desired spots around the bust line of the T-shirt. During this process I had to try it on quite a few times. Lucky for me the waist of this skirt fit perfectly aroun the t-shirt!

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Step 4) Once you get the desired fit, pick the side you like best and trace baste where you want the chiffon to come to.

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Step 5) Pin the side seams of the T-shirt together and transfer the markings to both sides.

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Step 6) Pin the chiffon back in place and baste the chiffon in place while it is on the form.

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Step 7) Sew the T-shirt and the skirt together.

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Step 8) Not pictured. I took up the back of the hem and 1/4″ top-stitched it down.

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Well there you go! Another refashion “save” for my record. I love it! It is comfortable and flows through a work day quite nicely.

What do you think?

I am sure you will let me know!!!

“til later

Love you all!

Mary

Honey, I Shrunk it Refashion!

September 28, 2014 By Mary Peterson 14 Comments

Hello Everyone!

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Don’t you just hate it when you buy something cute and it accidentally gets in the dryer when it needs to be hang dried? This is the case of, “Honey I Shrunk the T-Shirt” Refashion.”
If I had any guts and wasn’t so vain, I would try on this “Before” and let you see how shrink wrapped I looked in it!

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I couldn’t just throw it away as it was still so cute! It had to get bigger, but putting a contrast fabric down the sides would be too obvious. Then I looked at the sleeve… and what I came up with was this!

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After:

This version is much more comfortable and I can officially call this garment “Saved.”

This may not be the most amazing refashion but it is a practical one. Just think of all the garments you could save using this trick. It is all about the sleeves…

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Tutorial:

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Step 1) First I cut off the sleeves leaving about 1/2″ raw edge.

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Step 2) Next I cut open ONE side seam. I didn’t worry about unpicking it. In my
next step you will be able to see why.

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Step 3) Using the sleeve, I created a new side panel. The beauty of this is that is was already the perfect length and the sleeve of the hem matched up with the hem of the t-shirt.

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Step 4) After creating one side panel, I used that to cut out the opposite side panel with the other sleeve.

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Here is the side panel pinned and ready for topstitching.

Step 5) Because the underarm would be too unstable without support, I had to sew in a piece of bias tape to keep the underarm from stretching. I purposely used a contrast color of bobbin thread so I could show you the stitching.

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When all was said and done, I think it was a good use of my time.

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What do you think?

‘Til Next time!

Love Ya,

Mary

Back to School- No Refashion Required

August 24, 2014 By Mary Peterson 11 Comments

Hi Everyone!

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Tomorrow is the big day for my school district. The infamous, “First Day of School.” You would think after all of these years I would not be nervous, but this year I am teaching a combo 2nd and 3rd grade class, and there is this little thing called the “Common Core,” that has us all trying to figure out what to do next. So, you can see I have been quite busy.

One thing I am not worried about is what to wear. This little outfit is on the agenda for the week:

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Here are the “Thrifty Chic statistics:

Skirt-Liz Claiborne purchased unused from Goodwill-$5

Tanktop-Target-$5

Shoes Anne Klein-Marshalls-$25

The necklace was designed and made by me on a long ago blog entry. See the jewelry refashion here.

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I have quite a few projects finished, I just need the time to take those darn pictures. Stay tuned for more refashion fun and let me know what treasures you have found lately will ya?

Until then,

Love ya,

Mary