Refashioning: A 70s Floral Dress into a Tailored Slit Dress (Over Skinny Jeans)

When I'm bored, I scour Pinterest for ideas.

So, lately, I've been getting looks like these in my main feed:

I dunno...I've seen the maxi-dress-over-pants look before, and largely ignored it. However, something about it intrigued me this time. So...I kept an eye out at Goodwill for a maxi dress to play with.

A few weeks later, I found this little 70s Flower Child number:

You can see it's way too big--even dragging on the floor. I hate ruffle sleeves on me. And the V-neck is way too low. 

Still, I really liked the print and the polyester jersey fabrication, so I paid my $1.00 and took it home!

If you would like to try this, you don't have to follow these exact directions, but maybe it'll give you some ideas!

First order of "bid-ness" was to cut the horrible sleeves off.

Now...realize this: When you want to shorten a dress, you actually have TWO options. Yes, you can hem it from the bottom--which is the usual way. But I know a much easier way--especially when the neckline is way too low.

This is what you do: You pinch an inch or so at the shoulder seam. Now...I realize that this is going to move the shoulder seam forward. In other words, it will no longer sit at the top of your shoulder. However, a forward-ed shoulder seam is sorta "in" right now, so I find this to be an adequate adjustment. I'm gonna show you a few pictures of this, because it's kind of hard to see in this print.

So then, all you do is cut off the excess. I use pinking shears.

Okay, so...I really wanted sleeves. Trying to finagle the ruffle sleeves into a more fitted sleeve was...not easy. The fabric was a really weird shape. Still, you gotta use what you got. I laid another shirt on top of the ruffle sleeves as a pattern.

So, next I eased and pinned the sleeves back onto the dress.

So you can see here how big the dress is; however, notice how much nicer the V-neck sits from before. 

So, the next step was pinning down the sides to take off the excess sizing.

I sewed the side seams all the way down from the armpit to the floor to keep the shape uniform. It's now beginning to look really nice! I could have stopped here...but it's getting colder, so I wanted longer sleeves.

Notice how much shorter the dress is now. I didn't hem it. This just goes to show you that if a dress is too big, try taking the length away from the top and the sides first. Then see how long it is. 

Don't ever hem as your first alteration!!!

I added a piece of faux leather jersey to give an edgy look. But notice that now it looks sorta incomplete.

So, I added a bit more of the floral fabric. I had precious little left from the ruffle sleeves, but it was just enough to create a more uniform finished-looking sleeve.

Okay...I could have stopped there...(and maybe some of you think I definitely should have!)...but I have a million dresses...and the purpose of buying this one was to put it over pants...

so....

I laid it down on the floor...

and cut a big ol' chunk out of the front!

Not gonna lie...I was like, "What have I just done???"

But then I took it to the sewing machine and finished the slit's seam.

Here's how it looks over jeans.

And because we all love "Before and After"s:

The End!

De-Fashioning: Updating a Moto Jacket DIY

I haven't done a post in a while. This doesn't mean I have been sewing. It just means that I don't think to take pictures as I'm sewing!

So...I made sure to document this one.

Anyways....

You know how moto jackets used to look like this a few years ago? The double collar was huge. Not so much any more. Especially on this red jacket. I have small shoulders and the points and angles were just way too overwhelming.

So decided that I would tone it down a bit by taking out the neck part of the collar. I just went into the seam and ripped the whole seam out along the neck.

I took the neck collar out.

Then, I just pinned the neck seam back together and sewed it down.

Because the front flaps were top-stitched, I went ahead and top-stitched around the whole neck seam to make it uniform.

And, there you go! Really easy. I have to say the collar lays a lot better now, besides the fact that this is a more modern silhouette. 

Try this on that jacket that you have in your "give away" pile and see if it works for you! (Depending on how your jacket is constructed, you may be able to just cut the neck part out without taking the whole thing apart and resewing it!)

The End!

"The One Sleep Eyemask to Rule Them All" 2.0 - New and Improved!

So, about four and a half years ago (has it really been that long??...Gosh, I'm old...), I made a pattern for what I deemed "The One Eyemask to Rule Them All." You can find it by clicking ---> here. (Actually, you need to click there if you want to try this project, b/c it includes the pattern I used. And it's free.) 

Anyways, if you read that last post, you will learn that I am a really strange sleeper. I CANNOT sleep with any light nor sounds of any kind. I also...prefer to have my ears covered. I know. It's weird. Guess what. It's okay. I fixed the problem by buying an ear-covering-eye-mask in Korea when I lived there years ago. So...I'm not the only one! Someone else has this problem too!

Anyways, all that to say...my former mask--patterned after the Korean mask--was alright, but fell short in one major area: I woke up every morning with deep creases on my face made from the red binding I'd added around the outer seam.

Okay...so...why it took me four years to revamp it, I don't know, but anyways, the point is I did it, so without further ado, let's get to the new project.

To rid myself of the weird creases every morning, I decided to choose 100% silk satin. Silk has long been lauded as a luxury fabric and for good reason. Not only is is durable while being lightweight and aesthetically beautiful, it also is a great surface on which to sleep. (Remember when I made that silk satin pillow case? No? Well, click --> here then.) Anyways, I made a silk pillow case from an old prom dress that I never wore and couldn't sell online. I've been sleeping on it every night since I made it, and it's fantastic. Best pillowcase ever! My hair is far less frizzy with less breakage and I have fewer breakouts, just to name two reasons for why I am such a believer in sleeping on a silk surface.

A word about 100% silk satin. It's a luxury fabric. That means if you go to the fabric store to try to track it down, you are going to pay a pretty penny for a tiny bit of it. Instead of that mess, consider finding an article of silk satin clothing from the thrift store. The top below is a tunic that I actually bought on sale at a retail store, but it doesn't fit me very well. I had tried to sell it on Poshmark. It sat there for about a year with no takers, so I gave up and decided to repurpose it for my sleeping purposes. I'm glad I did. (You can see that I already cut a sleeping mask out of the bottom hem at the start of this project. That's because I wanted to trial run this project before promoting it to make sure it actually worked. Boy am I glad I cut that stupid shirt up! I love my eye mask! So...this project is really my making a few more masks that I can alternate when one of them has been washed and is hanging to dry.)

Okay...so...for reals this time, let's talk about the project and how you might replicate it.

You need: silk satin (if you can't find 100% silk satin, try just 100% non-satin silk. If you can't find 100% non-satin silk, try a polyester satin. It's not as good, but it's better than moisture-stripping cotton.). You also need black-out fabric. I used extra curtain fabric. It doesn't have to be curtain fabric, but curtain fabric is really really good for this because it is very opaque. You can easily test fabric by holding it up to the light. If it doesn't allow light to pass through, use it!

You also need: elastic, Velcro, glass beads (substitutes will be mentioned later), and....a stapler!

First, cut out both fabrics using the pattern in the link I already gave you at the top of this post. You need to add a seam allowance around it. I eyeballed about 1/4" around. You can see in the pictures below.

Then, with the right sides of both fabrics together, pin them.

Cut a two lengths of wide-ish elastic. (There are four in this picture because I actually made two eye masks at once.) These are roughly 6 inches long.

Open the sides of your pinned mask and stick the elastic in. (You can actually do this before you pin the fabric together in the first place.)

Then, stitch around. Make sure to leave an opening at the top middle of your mask so you can turn it right-side out. The picture below shows me back stitching over the elastic. I did this to assure the elastic was secure in the side seam.

Then, cut little notches around the curviest parts of the seam. This helps it lay better when it's right-side out.

Turn the mask right-side out.

Okay, first of all, see how there is an opening at the top middle of the mask? Make sure it's the TOP of the mask you leave the opening in and not the bottom. 

Okay, so get your pattern back out and notice where the lines are drawn. This sections off the "ear" parts from the "eye" part.  Put pins on either end of that line.

Then, just stitch straight from one pin to the opposite pin.

Then, turn it upside down and sew about a 1 to 1 1/2" line straight up the middle. This is where the mask will hit your nose and nose bridge.

Turn it back around and measure about 1 to 1 1/2" out and above the nose line to make eye lines. You may want to actually hold the mask to your face (BEFORE PINNING!!!) to see where your eyes hit in relation to the nose line. 

Then, stitch roughly 1 inch lines.

Okay, so now let's discuss filler options. You know how fancy spas have those eye masks that have fancy things in them like lavender and seeds and whatnot? So...you can totally use lavender...or rice...or seeds...or whatever. I used glass beads and here's why: Because I wanted to be able to throw my masks in the wash! Glass beads have a nice weight to them, so you get that spa-like feel, but you can also wash your mask in your weekly laundry and it won't get gross bacteria buildup or...mold! Ick!

A word about glass beads: They are awesome, but I do have to say that glass retains a colder room temperature than...say...cotton or lavender or other fillers. So, it's really nice to put a glass bead-filled eye mask on in summer. It's very refreshing. However, right now it is winter and so I will say, it takes a few minutes against my skin for the glass beads to stop being so dang cold. If you are a light sleeper, this can rob you of those first crucial moments when you are trying to fall asleep, so...what I do: I read the Bible before falling asleep. While I'm reading, I put the eye mask under my body, so it can heat up for a few minutes. Then, when I put it on my face, it's not so jarringly cold and it feels quite nice.

Okay, so, as I said, I made two masks at once. I actually tried to fill the other one with poly-fill stuffing. Well, after I filled it, I held it up to my face, and guess what...I could still see light peeking through the bottom. When I held the glass-filled one up, I could manipulate the beads to block all the light out. Also, the fact that the beads have weight keeps the fabric down, so less light comes through....Suffice to say, I pulled all the poly-fill out and filled the second mask with beads as well. 

If poly-fill works better for you, though, go ahead and use it. Use whatever filler you want.

Then, sew the top "filling" gap up.

Okay, so now comes the adding of the Velcro. Almost all Velcro you buy nowadays comes with a sticky backing. I'm not sure why companies think this is a good idea. First of all, sticky back Velcro is not permanent, no matter how sticky it is. It comes off in just a few washings. Furthermore--and if you sew at all, you will hear me on this--it's SUPER annoying to sew through! It gums up your sewing machine and the gum NEVER comes off your needle! Then you try to hand sew it, and guess what...same problem: You have to throw your needle away because it's covered in gum.

I am going to save you a ton of time and heartache with a simple hack.

First of all, take the strip off the backing...

Then, fold the edge of the elastic down toward the side that will receive the Velcro.

Stick the Velcro on over that fold...

Then, COMPLETELY BYPASS THE SEWING and use a stapler!

That's right! I said a stapler! Staple it just like I have it below and your mask is done! No messed up sewing machines. No unsalvageable needles. It's permanent, washable, and it takes three seconds! 

So here is the finished mask. Hurray for light/cold ears/crease-free sleeping!

The End!