Refashioning: Updating and Deleting a Weird Hem-Line Stripe Trend

Remember this stripe trend from the 90s? It was that sort of nautical thing that Tommy Hilfiger made so popular. (This dress is Liz Claiborne if that tells you anything.) Anyways, I found this dress at Goodwill, and I really liked the thicker stripes, but those narrow ones at the bottom hem just looked really dated to me. Also, the length of the dress was about four inches below the knee--not a good length for me.

So, this is what I did to fix it.

I folded the unwanted striped area in half and pinned it.

This is a close up of the pinning. See how I pinned right along the black part?

This is the pin from the other side. I tried to make sure that all my pins followed along the black line on either side of the fold.

Here is a series of the said pins all along the black stripe that I wanted to keep.

As I sewed, I kept just to the left of the pins to make sure that none of the white peeked through on either side.

After sewing, I ironed the fold up.

And then I top-stitched the fold to keep everything from shifting underneath.

Here you can see my sewing and top-stitching from the back.

Then I cut off the excess of the fold.

( I realize that I could have just cut off the entire bottom hem of the dress and created a new hem, but this way I could keep the actual manufacturer's hem. Plus, I didn't want the dress to be too short. Plus, I liked the big, thick black stripe.)

And here is my completed dress! And you'd be none the wiser if I hadn't told you!

To me, it looks a lot more timeless now.

The End!

To Tommy from Zooey...by Jessica...Navy and Red Cable Knit Dress

Zooey Deschanel has been sporting dresses from her Tommy Hilfiger "To Tommy from Zooey" line lately on her show "New Girl," and I really like the dress below:

Honestly, the main part I like is the red belt, but apparently it's not even part of the original dress as you can see from the picture below.

I still like the dress, but I don't have much of a torso and this shape of dress really does nothing for me. It was time for me to make a similar dress but to my specifications.

I did my "cut around it" method. For the bodice, I copied a V-neck sweater that I really like. 

For the sleeves, I copied a dress I made a few months ago, but never posted on my blog. I don't actually post everything I make! Hard to believe, I know. . .

These are all the pieces I would use and then sew together.

I sewed the shoulders together first.

Then sewed the sleeves on.

Then, sewed down the side seams of just the bodice.

Added the ribbing to the sleeve cuffs.

Added ribbing to the collar. (This was tricky to get it to V nicely.)

Then, sewed the waistband onto the bodice. If you notice, I reinforced the waistband with pink ribbing on the inside of the red.

For the skirt, I cut one long piece and sewed the two sides together.

Normally, you would baste the entire skirt portion, but instead, I skipped that step and just stretched and sewed the elastic directly onto the top of the skirt. Also, I learned a trick from the fashion design course I'm taking: To make sure your elastic stays under the needle, pull it up through the foot at the beginning. Great trick!

The skirt.

Then I sewed the bodice waistband to the skirt. Actually, I sewed over the elastic band again doing this. This assures the waistband will stay put and reinforces that area.

Then, I hemmed my skirt. I don't know if you can tell, but when I fold the hem under to the wrong side, I pin on the opposite side--the right side. I do this, because I much prefer being able to see where I'm stitching the hem vs. guessing and hoping that it looks okay on the reverse side when I'm done. It's a little tricky the first time or so when you attempt this, but I believe it is well-worth the effort.

I just used a basic straight stitch to hem. I know the fabric is stretchy, but this part of the hem isn't going to stretch since the fabric for the skirt is gathered so much. Also, a straight stitch is lower profile than a stretchy zigzag. Hopefully, from this picture you can see how I'm stitching the hem from the right side. This keeps you from being at the mercy of your feed dogs that like to jam and pucker occasionally.

The finished dress. I didn't like that extra white stripe on the original dress, so that's why I just used red.

I like the cable knit of this fabric. Gives it a classy retro look.

The End!

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?