Tailoring a Pair of Over-the-Knee Boots (It's easier than it sounds!!!)

So one of the biggest trends this past fall/winter (and looks like will still continue into the spring) is OTK (Over-the-knee) boots. They look great worn with shorter dresses and they keep your legs nice and warm. . .not that we have really needed that this past winter. . .Wait. . .Was there a winter?

Anyways.

They really do look super current and they help with coverage for those of us who don't like our legs so much. However, if you have a pair, I'm wondering if you have run into this same problem: They tend to "bust a sag." See how saggy and wrinkly? Not very pretty. I thought about buying a thinner pair and donating these. . .But if you know me, you know that I don't give things up without a fight! I would try to fix them first. . . Aaaaand you can probably guess that my fix was a success, because now I'm passing the info along to you!

So, my first step was to determine from where the sag was originating. I realized that if I pinched the fabric on either side of my knees, the rest of the boot lined up fairly nicely.

If I owned a boot factory, I would have turned the boot inside out and taken the back seam in about an inch. However, due to their construction--and the fact that I don't own an industrial facility--I could only get the top 1/3 of the boots turned inside out. But. . .the seam needed to go all the way down to the ankle! 

No matter. It's not as hard of a fix as all that!

My second step was to use these stickers to denote the places I pinched. To be exact, these stickers denote the area about two inches below the knee. Why two inches below? Stay tuned. I'll explain in a bit.

I grabbed some elastic and some wide ribbon. (If you do this, the ribbon needs to be wider than the elastic.)

I pinned a piece of ribbon between each sticker on the inside of each boot. (This is from the outside.)

This is from the inside.

And a close up of the outside.

As I said before, it was impossible to get these boots turned completely inside out, but I COULD get my sewing machine into the boots far enough to sew this ribbon in place.

This looks harder than it is. What you have to remember is to sew the line on the left from top to bottom first. Cut the strings, and then sew the line to the right from top to bottom again. In other words, keep the bulk of the boot to your left at all times. You are creating two parallel lines, not a box.

Here, you can see the parallel lines from the outside. 

Then, I took my bodkin (or you could use a safety pin) and attached it to a piece of elastic and fed it through my "ribbon tube."

I pulled the elastic all the way through and held the end of it flush with the tucked-in end of the ribbon.

Then, I stitched it all in place.

Then, I pulled the elastic so that it gathered up enough to fit my legs tightly.

I cut the elastic off, folded the ribbon under, and pinned everything. Then, I stitched it all in place.

And this is what each boot looks like from the back now. It actually looks pretty good like it was done in a factory, I think!

And here is why I put the elastic two inches below the knee: Because that is where the "fat" part of my calf starts. So, essentially what I'm doing is using my "fat" to counteract gravity! As I walk, gravity wants to pull the boots down; however, now the elastic hits my calf and the boots stay up now!

Before (left) and After (right)!

The End!

Refashioning: Dolce and Gabbana Inspired: Moo Moo to Modcloth

I was watching the 2016 Spring/Summer Dolce and Gabbana show on Youtube the other day. The show was all about Italy, and it ended with all the models coming out in these sweet little shift dresses celebrating different Italian destinations. I think they are precious.

Anyways, a few days later, I was in a thrift store and I saw this moo moo hanging on the dollar rack.

True to moo moo form, notice how the back is smocked and gathered with lines of elastic in the middle of the back. This will be important later. (Mini Spoiler alert! - No need for a zipper!)

I noticed a few of the medallions in the fabric said, "Royal Hawaiian Hotel," and I thought. . .It's worth a dollar trying to make my own destination dress!

First step was to cut off the sleeves.

Notice that the neckline is very large and is about to fall off the shoulders of the body form.

So, I pinched the dress at the shoulders and pinned them up about 2".

Then, I pinched in at the sides and the front princess seams and pinned my "pinchings" down to the waist, but no lower. I didn't pin anything in from the back, because remember how gathered it was with the smocking in the middle back? I didn't want to add any more fabric at my butt than was necessary.

Then, I took the dress to my machine. I sewed my pinned areas with a large basting stitch--just to make sure that they were in the right place before I sewed them down for real. (I've made too many mistakes jumping the gun here, which is why I highly suggest this step.)

This is what it looked like after the basting. Starting to look good, no?

Using my body form as a pattern, I cut the excess fabric off at the shoulders before adding sleeves. (I could have just made the dress sleeveless at this point and been done, but I like sleeves.)

Okay, I literally just took the same sleeves as were on the dress before. I didn't trim them or anything, even though they were too big for the armholes of the dress I now had. I kept them big so I could pleat them for a puffed sleeve look.

I sewed the sleeves together first and then pinned them, right sides together, to the dress.

The finished dress!

See the top of the sleeve? I added a pleat with the excess sleeve fabric.

Again, because of the stretchy smocking, I can get in and out of this dress without a zipper!

Because I didn't sew my inner seams all the way down past the waist to "nothing" (which would be true darts), the skirt part looks pleated and also adds fullness.

I think it looks like a dress from Modcloth now!

The End!