DIY Shirt Copycat

Happy Sunday friends :)

Unfortunately, my Christmas plans for the weekend fell through when Mother Nature decided to drop an ice storm on the in-laws. The roads were a complete mess and they lost power for more than 24 hours. In result, we did not go home and were not able to have the family Christmas this weekend. Luckily, we are all getting together on Wednesday (Christmas day) and spending time together. I'm certainly glad we didn't skip it, and even more glad that the ice storm is over and the power to my in-laws is restored.

Meanwhile in my house, I am having the worst luck with everything electronic. I finally got my sewing machine cleaned up and greased so it is no longer making any clunking noises. So, I prepared for today's project and got my thrift store garments all set. I turned on my camera... and nothing. It turned on, but as soon as I pushed the button to take a picture, it turned off. Even with a change of batteries, nothing was working. Then when I sat down to write this very blog, my computeres "r" key decided to stop working. When you're doing a post aboutt a "shirt" it happens to be a pretty necessary letter and keeps it from being comparable to poo. Luckily, I improvised with a wireless keyboard and my iPad. If I lose my iPad though - I'm giving up forever.

So, since my camera wasn't working properly, I had one choice - video. So here you are - a video of me walking you through creating a shirt from scratch. And it actually worked this time, so that's always a bonus.

Enjoy :)

As always, feel free to comment below and e-mails are always welcome at thriftysew@gmail.com.

Happy Holidays, and may all your electronics work better than mine.

Fishy Fishy

It's Sunday!

I've had quite the pleasant weekend, actually. As you may or may not have heard, the Northeast US got slammed with quite a bit of snow, and we certainly were not missed. Luckily, it was the weekend so we didn't have to go anywhere. We took the opportunity to hang around the house and get some relaxing in before the holiday rush. It wasn't all too bad - we snowblowed the driveway twice and all together got about a foot of snow. I've had worse.

Because of our nice, quiet weekend, I had plenty of time to work on projects. I went thrift shopping and also got my project done. That's where the stress-free weekend ended.

I started with this fishy masterpiece:

 It was a size 3X, and it may or may not have supposed to have been a long shirt. I'm still out on that one. I was inspired to buy this from all the popular printed sweatshirts/sweaters being sold lately. I know it's a fad, so I don't want to spend money on it, but I enjoy the look so this $3 dollar sensation was calling my name. Bonus: it was made of a black sweatshirt material.

First thing I did on this one was cut off the bottom panel, right under the sewn-in pockets.

At first, I thought the pockets were going to be a mess, since they were sewn in, but the large size of the dress made it simple to just pin up the middle, right inside the ends of the pockets, and cut them out altogether while bringing in the dress as well. And that's how I rock the two-for-one deal while sewing.

I used my ruler as a guide for my copious amount of pins, and followed it right up from bottom to top and also took a few inches off of the sleeves as well so they weren't quite as baggy.

 

That was as simple as that. I now had myself a patterned sweater to wear that I could fall into the trend AND be fiscally responsible. (I don't get to say that very often, so you just go ahead and read that last sentence over again for good measure. Go ahead - I'll wait.)

 

 

And now, for my no-snow friends: here's a bit of snowy glory for you. The snow covered trees are, and always will be, my favorite sight of all.

Don't tell me that doesn't blow your mind.

 

No crockpot meal this weekend folks. My apologies - I've started in on the Christmas cookie baking, so I had to have my counters clear.

 

However, you may have caught up on the fact that I said after my project was finished the stressful weekend ended. That is because my sewing machine is up to it's horrible game of "I don't want to work". It explodes thread. And, although funny at first, it's not becoming a fun game. It may become out of commission for a bit while I get it cleaned and tuned up. Stay tuned.

 

Dancin' Fail

Last week, I posted a video of my 4 year old self dancing to "All Dressed Up in Grown Up Clothes" like a champ.

Let me tell you this now - it wasn't always this way. I certainly messed up. Below is a video of myself at age 11 or 12. To this day, I cringe when I hear any of these songs. I've done many a dances, and this one is still, by far, the most embarrassing in my mind.

To preface, this was a medley song that lasted 7 excruciating long minutes.

Apologies for the crappy quality- as this was a time long before iPad's and iPhones, I had to video tape this from the TV while playing the VHS it was taped on.

Anyway, getting back to it - why on earth would I post this, showing possibly the worst recital I've ever done?

Because I finished it.

Perseverance. It's a difficult thing sometimes. As you can tell from my random comments, my face got pissier and pissier to the point where you know that I just wanted to give up and walk off stage. Alas, I did not. I kept on going, from song to endless song, and managed to keep up with the other dancers while not completely breaking down.

I get e-mails from ladies who want to start refashioning but don't want to start for fear that they will mess up or turn out something that they are not proud of. Most of all my responses are: just go for it. Hang in there and go for it. The only way that you are going to know is if you try and just go for it. You may look like a fool, you may not do something you're proud of, but finishing will be a success in itself.

And, as you may have heard from my other comments in the video - I rocked it out the second night. I went right back out there on Saturday, donned in my mom-shorts and white t-shirt with lipstick stains, and rocked it.

Moral of the story: it takes practice. At this point in my dancing career I had been dancing for at least 8 years, but I still messed up. Just because I was experienced, does not mean that I was perfect.

And that, my friends, is why I post my refashions that don't work out so well right along with the (good?) ones that worked out. It's not an easy thing to do, taking god-awful garments and making them look okay, and it won't always work out the way it will in my mind - and certainly hasn't.

But - I will always get back out there (rather, in there - as in, my craft room) and go at it again. I encourage all of you that e-mail *and have the same thoughts* to do the same, whether your refashion turns out to be a masterpiece or a master fail.

My apologies for the touchy-feely-ness of this, but I believe that every now and then everyone needs a pick up or two.

Dancin' Fool

This is a doozy of a post, let me tell you. This took me a computer, an iPad, an iPhone and a camera to complete and I'm still not entirely sure if I've structured it the way I wanted to. You're welcome.

So I was shopping at the Salvation Army not too long ago, and I came upon a dress that made me completely and utterly miss my childhood. First, watch this video. (Yes, it's 2 minutes long, and yes, it has the commentary of my family and I because I couldn't get it in iMovie to edit it. Fail. I get that.)

This was one of my dance recitals when I was 4 years old. I can still sing every word, and still know most of the steps in the correct order. I was "All Dressed Up in Grown-Up Clothes" and got to don my mother's dress and jewelry for this recital. I danced from ages 3 until 19/20 (college) and miss every second of it.

So, imagine my surprise when I came upon this gorgeousness in the thrift store:

I put the old school filter on this one to channel my 4 year old self. Note - don't pay any attention to the striped tank top underneath. This dress is super see through.

This dress was the same color and had the same feel as mom's dress that I used for the dance above. It wasn't exact, but it was enough for me to spend a bit more than usual on it - 4 dollars! First thing was first - remove all unnecessary shoulder pads as well as the weird flap on the chest (what is that, anyway?)

Next, I had to do something with the skirt. It was super long and as super see-through as the top, so it was quite the challenge to figure out what to do with it. Finally, I decided on a bubble skirt (channeling the tutu here). To do this bubble skirt, I folded the bottom hem up inside the dress and sewed it down on the elastic. This poof'd it out enough to be bubbly, but not overly annoying.

I admit, it does not look pretty, but this is the inside. On the outside, it looks like a regular ol' cinched waist. Win-win!

Next, I removed the sleeves. I did this for 2 reasons: 1) sleeveless is way more dancer-like and 2) they were cutting off my circulation. I don't have rather large forearms, so I thought, but these things cinched right onto them like I was hulking it up. Not pretty, nor comfortable. This is where I messed up, because I cut off the first sleeve the wrong way, so the cut was on the right side of the fabric. This made it necessary for me to hem the sleeve (when done right, this shouldn't be needed, for short-term use). Then I couldn't really go and do the other arm correctly, so I intentionally cut it wrong again and did the same type of hem on the other side. It was quite the time waster, but at least both arms look equally messed up. Score?

Paired with my leggings and a black tank top, I had a dancers dress that my 3 year old dancer self would have been super jealous of (and also my 4 year old to 19 year old dancer self - these were a hot commodity!)

Bring on the let warmers and the tap shoes!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, and that you didn't get trampled on Black Friday if you were ballsy enough to go out.

And, if you find yourself celebrating Christmas (as we do) - do you have your tree up yet? We put ours up today and I couldn't be more in love with it.

I am super excited for the holiday season - I am quite the little child at this time of year, so it's only appropriate I share a bit of my childhood with ya'll today.

 

For today's crock pot meal: Southwest Chicken

- one bag frozen corn

- 2 chicken breasts (frozen is fine, I did it and I'm not dead) skinless, boneless and all that jazz

- 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed. if you don't it's gross)

- 18oz salsa (I used mild, but medium may give a bit more pop)

*Note* I ended up using a half bag of frozen peas, and a can of kernel corn because I was lacking the frozen corn aspect. It worked fine.

Throw the chicken, corn, black beans and salsa in the crock pot. I then put it on low for 4 hours. Once it was done, I shredded the chicken and stirred up the pot. I served it over jasmine rice with a bit of shredded Mexican cheese on top, but it is also quite tasty over tortilla chips with cheese and sour cream. Do your thing - it's kind of hard to screw up.

I even got the "pretty delicious" comment from my husband so, there's that. (That comment doesn't happen. Ever.)

So tasty, in fact, I didn't take any pictures. Sorry :*(

Nothing to see here...

Sorry folks. Failed you again, as there is no project this weekend.

I don't say this because I didn't have anything planned (I did) or because I'm lazy (I sure haven't been) or because I had a fun weekend and didn't get around to sewing (literally the least fun weekend ever). 

It's because if this -

And this - 

Apologies for crappy iPhone photos. 

Is this spring cleaning? You may ask. Nope, that's more fun. This is my craft room, post flood. That's right - we had the most random flipping leak from somewhere, still don't know where, that caused over 40 percent of our basement to flood with water - most damage being my craft room. 

Here's the picture: my husband and I, hanging out watching Shark Tank. Suddenly, the power goes off. I say "I'll get the candles from the basement". And off to the basement I stumble (no power, remember? No lights = a Colette who appears to have never stepped in this house in her life. It happens, but that's not the story). 

So I head downstairs to my craft room with the intent of finding candles and the one lighter that we own but can never find. I get to the bottom step and hear a squish - but I'm walking with purpose now so the squish is on the back of my mind. I get into my craft room and my feet get soaked and there's tons more squishing. Through the back of the basement, I see inches of water (past the tops of my feet). I scream "honey!" with the fear of god in my voice. In reply - a loud "what?!"  Mind you, I use that same fear of god voice when I see a mouse, see a shadow or hear a loud noise, so he wasn't all that concerned. Once I said flood though, man, did he come running. 

Mind you, this whole time we're in the dark. Once we finally got to assess the situation and get out a few "oh shit"s, it came back on. 

We finally got the unfinished part of the basement drained (thanks for too little too late Mr Sump Pump) and all of our (soaked) stuff out of our storage space, and got out our wet/dry vac to attempt to save the carpet. Which pretty much immediately began to smoke and became utterly useless. So the hubby and I spent the majority of the night stepping on towels to soak up water, and rotating new ones out of the washer/dryer. 

To make a long story... well, still long, but coming to an end: we rented a carpet cleaner from Home Depot and strictly used the extractor to get the water out. As you see in the above picture, we are pretty much putting all our faith into a dehumidifier and a bunch of fans. Together, we decided to go with the least intrusive (and cheaper) options before we go into calling everything a loss and throwing out all the carpet. Fingers crossed that that is an option we don't have to turn to. 

In summation - bear with me. I'm tired (enough so that I don't even care about googling which "bear/bare" I should have used in that last sentence), and grumpy, and missed out on shopping this weekend. 

However! Silver lining: it's the holiday season, a three day work week is in front of me and Black Friday fun is quickly approaching. I can stick this out. And I'm hoping my basement can too. 

As for crock pot meal - remember the tired and grumpy part? Yeah, well, it shows in my "cooking". 

That, my friends, is the most simple meal in the world. $10 meal a la Wegmans - pulled pork in a bag. Cook in the bag, open bag, eat meat. Boom. 

Thrift Scores

Happy Sunday Funday! I spent a fantastic long weekend with the family - eating good food and having good fun with good people. In the midst of all the fun, I didn't get a project done. But I thought it might be nice to show ya'll the other side of thrifting - finding things that don't need to be changed at all.

I didn't get to take pictures of all my thrift scores, as they are scattered throughout my house and some are in the washer from a recent wearing, but I found 3 examples from a recent shopping trip that will make my point.

First, there was this find from Merona, a Target brand, for $3.

The belt was my own addition - I could certainly swap it out for a thin black one to make it a bit more work friendly.

The next one got my Syracuse-brain piqued, and I couldn't help but pick up this American Eagle find for $1.50.

The last one I could find is a New York and Company printed skirt find for $1.

I'm not a huge fan of printed skirts, but this one was so bouncy and flowy that I had to pick it up. It doesn't look too bad with my homemade chamois shirt, but I think I would be safer with just a plain white or black shirt - or maybe go crazy with a bold color.

And so I'm not completely letting everyone down - here's a sneak peek of what I'm working on, but was unable to finish by the time I wanted to go to bed. (Fail.)

This one may or may not include a video too.... surprise!

Additionally, I did not get to cooking a crock pot meal either...

... but my mom did!
Here's her recipe:
- a big chunk o' beef
- one packet of onion soup/dip mix (less if you're sensitive to salt)
- one can of cream of mushroom soup.
Throw the chunk o' beef in the crock pot, and throw the onion mix on top, followed by the soup. Then, cook on high for 5 hours ("fall-apart tender", mom says) or somewhere around 8-10 hours on low. Mom served it cut up into portions and slathered in gravy, but you can have your way with it when you it is good and done.

Grab some beef, grab some wine, watch some football and enjoy your Sunday night!!

As always, comment away or catch me at thriftysew@gmail.com.

The Green Monster

Happy Sunday Funday, friends :)

Now, all you Boston baseball fans can go ahead and click off - this has nothing to do with the famous baseball field and everything to do with this monstrosity:

Please try not to judge the sweatpants. It's that time of year that it is really, really cold in my craft room, so sweatpants and long sleeves are quite necessary.

Anyway - this dress was a mess. I picked it up because I'm a big fan of green lately, and it was priced at $1. It was one of those situations that you just don't say no to. I didn't have too high of expectations here. I was quite excited, however, to find pockets. The super dropped waist and the tutu like skirt, though... I could go without it.

First thing I did was disconnect the top from the bottom by unstitching the dropped waist. We were going to pull that waist up.

Next (and I failed miserably on pictures here), I put the bottom over the top and sewed it together with a waist that actually falls at my natural waist. This also solved the long length problem and brought it up to an appropriate knee-length.

Before you get to thinking I'm actually getting good at what I do, let me tell you how erroneous that actually is.

Proof:

This is the top of the dress, which is inside out, and the skirt bottom, which is right side out, and the visible seam in mint green. Also known as... my first mess-up.

I had to rip all that out and go at it again. The second time, I made sure to cut the excess top, and line up my seams correctly. Also, because the bottom was a lot bigger than the bottom of the shirt, I ended up making two pleats in the front and two pleats in the back. This was my first time adding pleats to anything, and I only made one inside out. I'm going to go ahead and call that a "win".

Close up of my pleats in the front.

I wanted to change the neckline, but as you may have noticed from my mess-up photo, I was using mint green thread. Unfortunately, I am finding that my thread collection is severely lacking, as every time I look for a certain color... it is not in my collection. This particular green was not in my collection, so I was unable to do any seams that were going to be visible to the general public.

So, for now, this is the end result until I can own a green thread that matches:

Although it is a bit big, I didn't want to make it smaller and lose the pockets. I did take off most of the sleeve and created a cap sleeve so it wouldn't look so large. Also, to cinch it in a bit, I brought out my trusty belt.

I'm actually quite a fan of this dress. Once I change the neckline up a bit (I'm thinking a good ol' V-neck would do fine), it will be within a normal rotation to my work clothes.

Now, for the new addition of my crock-pot meal. It was another chicken pot today - Pulled Mexican Chicken. I'm not a huge fan of red meat so it's only about a once a week thing in our house. Chicken, however, plays a main role in many of our dishes. Wegman's makes it super easy when they individually wrap it up for us...

This recipe is super easy. There's no link, because it's basically a recipe I made up with the combined use of other recipes of it's like. All you need is:
- 4 chicken breasts
- taco seasoning
- chicken broth

First, throw the chicken in the bottom of the crock pot. Then toss in the full packet of taco seasoning (at the end, I added another packet, so feel free to throw two packets in there if you like it well-seasoned). Then, add some chicken broth. I'd love to tell you how much to use, but I didn't have a clean measuring cup so I eye-balled it. I was aiming for 1 cup of broth, but it was probably only 3/4 cup. I tend to go light-handed when I estimate. Then, cook it on low for 4 hours. After 4 hours, shred up the chicken with two forks, and then put the top back on the crock pot and let the shredded chicken hang out in the juice for a while, but turn off the crock-pot so it doesn't continue cooking.

Enjoy! This is especially good when thrown into a tortilla with some tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream and salsa, but I'm not here to tell you how to eat it, just how to make it :)

Denim Dare Me!

So this week I've got a bit of a copycat going on. I've been playing with the idea of chambray shirts. I can't decide whether it's just a fancy denim shirt and children will laugh at the trend in a few years, or if it's a fun trend that I want to jump on. Looking at stores around me, I didn't find any prices that I was willing to pay. For instance...

You can find this Gap shirt here for $59.99. What. A. Steal. I knew I could do better and, with a little work, I could make it perfect. So, I found this and knew it was meant to be.

First thing I did was lit a candle and got some liquid courage... I'm slightly in love with the tiny little candles available at Bath and Body Works. They're cheap, they burn for hours and they smell delicious. I'm good with that.

The dress was a bit big, so I took it in about an inch or so on each side. I did a straight stitch first, and then followed it with a zig-zag stitch to really lock it in there and not have any embarrassing holes should a stitch break somewhere. This didn't have to be pretty because no one would see it. Once it was sewn, I cut off the excess.

Next, I cut the dress shorter. I cut it about waist-length and hemmed up the bottom. I saved the bottom scrap, as it was a rather large scrap and a very soft denim as I'm sure I could use it for something. I also made sure to pop off and save the buttons - never can have too many buttons!

That was that! It was a super simple fix and, in my not so humble opinion, it looks fantastic. Bonus: it's super comfortable. I rolled up the sleeves to make it look like the original and I was good to go.

This is probably going to be a normal addition to my weekend rotation. Until children start laughing at the trend.

In other news, I'm getting back into the habit of doing crock-pot meals on Sundays. These are so easy and laid back and super simple to throw together and go about your day. I've decided I'm going to make this a bonus on my posts - whenever I throw together a crock pot meal while I sew, I'll include the recipe on here as well. I hope you benefit from lazy Sunday's as well by using some of these recipes (often stolen from Pinterest).

Today's Crock Pot meal - Chicken and Stuffing.
Ingredients:
- Chicken breast (skinless, boneless and what have you)
- Stove Top stuffing (1 package)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Here's my favorite part: throw shit in the pot. Put the chicken on bottom and cover with the stuffing mix. Mix together the sour cream, the soup and 1/4 cup of water and throw that on top of the stuffing. Then put the cover on it and stick it on low for 4 hours.
*Disclaimer: As I'm writing this during my 4 hour wait, I can't really tell you it's delicious. It could suck, but that's just the risk you take.*

Happy Sunday :)



Stay tuned...

Stay tuned, faithful readers, for a mid-week blogging. I caught myself a nifty little stomach bug that put me down for the count on blog day. Once I feel better, I'm hoping to get something together in time for Halloween, which is the best time of the year. 

Always a Bridesmaid...

... once a bride!! (Eat that, ridiculous old saying)

Last weekend's wedding festivities were so much fun that I could not resist the formal attire rack at the Salvation Army this weekend. These dresses aren't just dresses; they are symbols. Symbols of fantastic nights, best friends, close family and bringing two lives into one. Maybe the dress went through a crazy night, a stressful night, a funny night, or maybe the dress even wound up in jail and had to get bailed out (well hey there, lifetime movie). It's so much fun to imagine what types of activities these dresses went through. I couldn't resist but to pick one up, and this $7 dollar beauty fit the bill.

This was very obviously bridesmaid, including the telltale sash and everything. It was pretty well taken care of, and all in all in not too bad of shape. The worst things I could see when I was at the store was that it was sized at an 18, so it was going to be too big, and the back lace-up was missing, I figured it wasn't too big of a deal and scooped it up.

I should definitely preface this post with this: I am always awesome in my head, and my plans always work out well. Also, in my head, everything turns to be out super easy because I can break it down step by step. Keep in mind - this is all in my head. Because reality, especially for this project, is a witch. (Feel free to swap in the "b" if you are aged 18 or older.)

The first thing I noticed was that, although sized at 18, it was fitted to a much smaller size. I should have seen that coming, really, because I know the three truths that are involved in buying a bridesmaids dress: a) order a much larger size than you are b) get your fitness on because you want to look as fantastic as possible and c) get the dress fitted to you (usually at your new size if you did the fitness part well). So that was the first bonus: I didn't have to take this in.

The first thing I did was deal with that awful sash. Sashes look very pretty at weddings; however, that sash will never, ever be in that "you can totally wear this again" bride mentality. Now, I'm not sure if wedding shops are just getting nicer, or if this one (Alfred Angelo) just decided to save on thread, but this sash was connected by three whole strings.

This was simple enough to snip off and I found myself confident that this was going to go well. In hindsight... I'm silly.

Next, I put on the dress and measured down to my knee. Then, I took off the dress, made the measurements all across the front and back, and connected my dots with my seamstress wheel chalk thing. That's obviously the technical term.

Next - and here was the mentally hard part - I cut the dress up the side seam and chopped off the bottom.

This all went very well so my confidence was only a little shot when I put the hem on my lining of the dress. I really, really botched this, and had I known it would start off a terrible pattern of messing the rest of it up, I would have ripped it all out and tried it again. Alas, I could not see into that future, so my thinking at this point was "it's just the lining - no one will see".

It bunched, it pulled, it wasn't even - it wasn't good. I came to the conclusion afterward that I should have used a straight stitch (for some reason I'm mildly obsessed with the zig zag stitch. My machine often doesn't leave it...) and also should have put my stitch length much longer so it didn't pull and bunch. This will be the first lesson I follow when I decide to go back and fix this dress.

Next, I attempted the hem of the body of the dress. You know, the one people see. I knew it had to be some sort of blind stitch, but my machine does not have the capability for that. So... I had to do it by hand. Mind you, I have only blind stitched by hand a few times and it was mainly on pant legs that no one sees. Knowing this, I probably should have googled the activity further, but instead I just hopped into it. I didn't take a picture of this process, but you'll see in the end that my by-hand blind stitch leaves much to be desired.

Next, with my confidence no longer even slightly existent, I decided to create a cord from the bottom of the dress to make a new tie for the lace up back. I cut an inch wide sash off the entire bottom scrap and folded it in half, rights sides together, with the intention of sewing it up and bringing it inside out to have a nice cord with no seams. After it was all sewn, it did not want to go inside out. No matter how many pencils I attempted to stick in this tube, it was just not happening. Eventually, I just laced up the back with the wrong-side out tube full of seams so I could see if it was at least long enough to work if I were to make a cord correctly. Luckily, it was long enough.

It was at this point that I called it a day. Sometimes when you're plans aren't going as they are in your head, you just need to step back, expand your knowledge on the subject and come back to it with a fresh mind - and that is what I plan to do. Eventually I will come back to this disaster dress, seam rip all my work and re-do all the hems and the back cord to the point where I'm able to wear this in public without being totally ashamed. I mean - I guess I could wear this out in public... in bad lighting and with the assurance that everyone is too drunk to even know what a proper hem looks like. Until then, here is the visual to give you a giggle.

Maybe I can pass off the wonky hem as ruffles? Anybody? No?

 

Better luck next time. This is one dress that will not see a wedding again anytime soon.

Pretty Plaid

Happy Holiday Monday! This weekend in the US was Columbus Day Weekend. For most, that means a 3 day weekend. For me this weekend meant a wedding and travel filled weekend with a bonus day off. I had an out of town wedding this weekend that was fantastic - everything we did was a lot of fun and we had a great time hanging out with the family.

Now, I'm sitting home on my bonus day off (this isn't one of our paid holidays so I just took the day off as a vacation day) and making up for my lack of posting yesterday. Luckily, this one was super simple that I could use the rest of my day to rest up and take a relaxing few hours to myself.

I started off with this beauty:

When purchasing this, I had St. Patrick's Day in mind, but there was no way I could let it sit for that long. I could not quite figure this dress out - it had some strange layering that had me going for quite a while.

My only saving grace of knowing I had this on right was that the tags were in the back. That was literally it.

 

First thing that had to go was the shoulder pads. Snip snip!

Next thing I did was separate all the layers. This was probably the best decision I could have made because it all fell into place at that point and it was super simple to come up with updates for the rest of it. So simple, in fact, that I just jumped right into it and didn't take any pictures of the process. Whoops!

Basically - I took the weird layer off of the top, and found that there were buttons in the back that were supposed to be buttoned up once the dress was all set and on correctly. The arms were also super large. After I took this entire piece off, all I had to do was turn it around so the buttons were in front and boom - I had a cropped plaid jacket. Literally no sewing involved. Just a matter of letting it shine on its own.

This is how you know Colette is having a lazy day. I didn't even take the time to put on real pants, ya'll. (But seriously... loving leggings on lazy, rainy days like today!)

Once I had the poncho-esque layer off, I was left with a dress that was actually really pretty. The top was a lining, but was a thicker lining that wasn't see through, so all I had to do was throw on a trusty undershirt and the top was set.  Next, as the dress went down to my ankles, I took up the hem quite a few inches. This ended up being knee-length. I will probably keep it this length for Christmas, but then hike up the hem for St Patrick's Day in March to switch up the look a bit. It's nothing if not versatile, eh?

I was very happy with this dress and super pleased that, once it was all torn apart, it took very simple steps to throw this back into an updated, fashionable (maybe?!) look.

As always, comment below or shoot an e-mail to thriftysew@gmail.com. Always love hearing your comments.

Now, I will most certainly take a hint from my cats and cuddle up and enjoy the rest of the day. I suggest everyone does the same! Cheers!

Daring to Dye

Happy weekend, friends. This post is coming up a bit late, but it's only because it was a pretty fantastic weekend. First, it started with this:

That is tailgating at a college football game, my friends. My apologies for the bad iPhone photo, but I wasn't planning on this picture making the post, but I had too much fun to not say anything.

So we went to the Syracuse vs. Clemson game. And for those of you that haven't seen the Syracuse campus, it's pretty much the original Hogwarts.

I mean, it's not, but it looks pretty legit.

The stadium was absolutely packed though - a whopping 48,000+ people.

So the project for this weekend was one that was laid back and able to keep me focused on weekend football, as I was already in the mood to watch. I chose a skirt that I picked up for 50 cents.

This skirt was overly large, and in a pattern that I wasn't a huge fan of. I took the opportunity to use up some extra products that were in my craft room...

Neither bottle of dye had enough liquid in it to do much damage on a single piece of attire, but together they had enough to make something... hopefully purple. So, I threw it all in the bucket and let it sit for a few hours while I sat down to a relaxing weekend of doing... pretty much nothing.

My grade school logic turned out correctly, because when I dumped out my dye bucket, this gorgeous purple is what came out.

After a quick rinse and spin in the washer and then a dryer tumble, out came my new skirt. It was a bit more subdued of a pattern, but still had enough interest to not be a "regular" old black skirt.

Altogether, it came out pretty well. After taking in the skirt about 2 inches or so, it started to become something wearable. I don't see myself wearing it anytime soon to work, but I feel like it has some possibility of Halloween costume or comfortable weekend wear. (Who knew there was a single piece of clothing that could be in both categories!?)

 

So not the most exciting refashion in the blogosphere, but I did get my dying practice on and even got a bit of mixology (boom!) going with *gasp* accurate results.

 

As always,. comments are welcome as well as e-mails to thriftysew@gmail.com. I've gotten a few comments about my lack of updating the Before and After page - and you are correct, I have slacked big time on that page. I will be doing updates soon, and hoping to make each picture a link to the corresponding post. Stay tuned, and keep checking. I'll stop being lazy at some point.