Refashioning: Turning an Old Lady Shirt Backwards. . .Literally!

I frequent my Goodwill on the weekends because all tags of a predetermined color are only a dollar! Honestly, most of the clothes you see in this blog. . .and on my person. . .come from this rack. Anyways, I'm always on the lookout for my "Type 4" colors, and my green in particular because it's my favorite. When I find it, I usually just buy it--even if the item is gross--because I love this color, and I know I can turn it into something else. I hope. . .as always, that this post gives you some ideas!

Here is an old lady shirt I found the other day. 

It's that really weird crinkly, yet stretchy, polyester fabric. It's usually really horrid, but on this particular shirt, the color really shines--almost sparkles. I can't stop looking at it. These pictures don't do it justice. (My camera has a hard time with greens, unfortunately.) Just picture the boldest green you have ever seen, and. . .that's it!

The first step was to cut the shoulder pads out!

Then, I cut the collar off.

Then, the sleeves.

Next, I pinned and sewed up the button placket. 

This used to be the front, but I wanted the buttons in the back, so I pinned it to the back of my dress form and used the form as my pattern. (This is actually a technic of pattern making called "draping" because you drape and pin the fabric onto a form and then cut away everything that doesn't lie flat. I don't do it very often, but I probably should. It worked really well.)

I also draped the front (which used to be the back).

Next, I worked on the sleeves. For this, I did my usual cheating method of cutting around sleeves of a shirt I already knew fit me well.

I sewed up the sides of the sleeves.

Then, I pinned the two bodice pieces together and sewed them.

I added elastic to the tops of the shoulders as reinforcement. This fabric is super stretchy and I didn't want the shoulders to stretch out. I've noticed this method on factory-made shirts I own. Turn your garments inside out sometimes! You can learn a lot!

I pinned , then sewed, the sleeves to the bodice.

Then, I sewed some black stretchy fabric to the neckline, but. . .I guess I forgot to take a picture. (I get ahead of myself sometimes and forget that blog posts need pictures. . .Tons of my projects never even make it on here because I forget to take pictures. . .Oops.)

Okay, so. . .It kinda looks like Star Trek, but. . .I love Star Trek (especially Mr. Spock, may he rest in peace), so I'm okay with that!

I added a leather Peter Pan collar necklace that I made (example of a project I never photographed), and wore it with a jumper so I wouldn't look like a Starship Trooper.

The End!

Red and Black Quilted Jacket

Below is a jacket I bought on eBay. I love it. It is like all the good parts of a cardigan and a jacket put together. I'm a sucker for jersey like this because it has a little bit of give, but holds a nice structure. It is also a really simple design for someone attempting a jacket because there is no top collar piece to worry about. The bodice extends into the turned out bit, so a designer only has to use one piece.

This jacket took me six Dr. Who episodes to make. . .or in layman's terms: six hours. (The quilting process alone took up at least two of those episodes!)

Getting right to it: I laid it down. I measured the lapel flap and then extended it out as though it were unfolded using the clear ruler. I could have easily cut the tacks to the lapel and unfolded it, but I didn't feel like re-tacking it later, and using the ruler was just as easy.

I cut around it all. This will be the bodice front. Notice something: I folded a small triangular portion of the top of the shoulder down at an angle. I will point out why I did this later.

Instead of just interfacing around the collar and outer edge, I decided I wanted to fully line the entire jacket in black jersey.

Next, I double folded the black material and cut out the back bodice piece. Remember the triangular piece I folded down for the front of the bodice? I mentally added it back in at the top of the shoulder here. You will see how cool this looks later.

I cut out my sleeves. They are not doubled/lined like the bodice pieces are.

The first sewing step I took was to sew the front pieces together at the neckline all the way to the bottom hem, and the back pieces together at the neck and the bottom. Below you can see I have sewn the back neckline with the other seams I've explained being pinned at this point. 

I used red bobbin thread and black top thread. I'll explain why later. 

Then, I turned those pieces right side out and top stitched the neck/bottom seams. You can start to see why I used red and black thread here.

Next, I pinned and sewed some black non-stretchy lace on the back sides of the lapels. If you watch a tutorial or read a pattern for making a jacket, they always advise you to reinforce the backs of the lapels so that they fold out nicely and don't stretch out of shape. I worked on the pinning for awhile to make sure both lapels were as perfectly symmetrical as possible before sewing.

I've had this project in my head for probably a year now, and it has always been quilted. I think that quilting takes a simple jacket to the next level and makes it look expensive, like Chanel. I'm not exactly sure how to quilt the right way, and I didn't want to spend any time looking up videos on how to quilt, so this is what my head came up with. I followed the slant of the shoulder line and measured down two inches from that, putting pins at either end, and continuing down with pins at every 2" mark. Then, I just sewed from pin to pin. I'm sorry if that gives you a heart attack, because I'm almost positive this is NOT how it's done.

This was my eye view. See the pin under the foot? I just eyeballed from there to where you see my thumb. I wish the lines were just a tad straighter, but. . .again, I didn't feel like learning how.

Then I just did the same thing with pins going perpendicular to the first lines. Quilting was the main reason I used red and black thread at once.

I don't think my quilting lines look too bad after all, and if you look, they are actually mirror images of each other on each piece.

Next, I sewed the shoulders of the fronts and back together. Can you see now why I subtracted that triangle from the front and put it on the back?

Next, I added the sleeves and then sewed down from the wrist to the armpit and then to the bottom hem of the jacket.

My last touches were to hem the cuffs, dart the back, and hand tack the lapels down so they lay flat, but not completely flat.

Back darts.

I like that it looks a bit like a riding jacket, and there is a tiny nod to the Hugh Hefner smoking jacket as well, but it still looks feminine.

Not bad for my first jacket ever! :)

The End....

P.S. I realized after looking at the above pictures, that one last step needed to be taken. That was to put in breast darts.

Never undereatimate the power of good tailoring!

The Real End. Bam.

Chanel Inspired: Nautical Dress

I like to watch Youtube videos of fashion shows when I'm bored. I get really bored shopping for clothes lately. I hate spending money and nothing affordable ever looks very cute. (Norma Kamali had some awesome stuff at Walmart for awhile, but that ended years ago.) Every once in awhile I get inspired by a fashion show, however. Right now, I'm overflowing from this Spring Summer 2013 Ready-to-Wear collection from Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld:

I just really liked the little, short bolero top things going on in a lot of the dresses. The reason is because chopping off the top portion of a dress just above the waist helps to emphasize the top region of the body, while really making the waist look tiny. You don't see this style a lot because this look usually makes a woman resemble a matador. 

For some reason the plaid dress at 5:50, I really liked a lot. I drew it in my notebook of ideas, then I looked at my fabric cache, and three ideas popped right into my head. I thought I would try them in jersey to add some comfort into the style.

To make a pattern, I went to my closet and picked out some things I already have and I know fit me: 

I used the cream colored shirt I'd bought when I lived in Korea as the basis of my pattern. I really like it. It's cute, comfortable, and hides a lot. I used the blue assymetric shirt my husband bought me in Italy on our honeymoon as a guideline for how short the top part should be. The D&G shirt I just kind of used to determine how wide the top bolero part should be. 

I also look at modcloth.com every once in awhile for ideas. If I see an interesting idea, I always want to see if I can try to figure it out. I came across this shirt: Dear to Me Top and wondered how they'd made that bow in the front. Instead of being appliceed, it seems to be stitched into an actual seam in the shirt, so I had to try it.

I draw my patterns on that brown paper that comes as packing filler in boxes of stuff I order online. I forgot to put the sleeve pattern on here, but you get the idea of what my patterns looked like. I extended the length of that cream colored Korean shirt to make more of a dress length. The shorter bodice parts are the bolero part that goes over the longer dress. That straight part in between the longer dress and the bolero is the pattern for the ties of the bow.

This is what it looks like, finished:

I think this would look good on any frame, because for those who don't have a bust, it adds a bust. For those who do have a bust, it hides it. Same thing with shoulders and hips. The only thing I might worry about is a gut, but at least on this dress, the bow kinda hides that too!

From the back. You can really see how the top part makes the waist look tiny. This cut gives a girl confidence because if her butt happens to stick out a little bit, that might be a cute thing here!

I know this bow looks a little "Minnie Mouse-ish," but I rather like it.

I pouffed the sleeves at the bottom rather than the top for a slightly different feminine flair.

As you can see, it's all one piece. I attached it by the collar of both parts. I actually did this wrongly and had to take the stitches out the first time. It's misleading, because normally you stitch right sides together. . .but not so here, because both right sides have to be facing the same way. That doesn't make sense unless you are doing it, so nevermind!

Where's Mickey?