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!

Black Harem Pants

If you have a really good memory, you may well remember these weird pants I made about a year ago. The problem I had with them was that they were grey, and soon after making them, I learned I was T4. I wondered why I hated the pictures of me at the end of that post. Now, it all makes sense. Anyways, I really wanted to remake them in black. So, I did.

I used the same pink shorts as last time as my main pattern pieces. I love this shiny black jersey material. Really edgy and great for this project.

I also used a pair of sweat pants to use as a reference for the length of the pants. I cut around them.

I did something different at the ankles, though. I curved them in slightly. This will make the pants drape differently around the ankles. I think it looks really modern.

After cutting all the pieces out, the first step was to fold the pockets in half and stitch the bottom of them.

Then, I pinned and sewed the pockets to the top of the front pieces.

Next, I pinned pleats into the sides of the front pieces.

Then, I pinned the front and back pieces together and sewed the outer seam of each leg.

This is what the seam I just talked about looks like from the right side.

Next, I pinned and sewed the "crotchal region."

Then, I sewed the inseams together in one big, long seam.

Last step: sewing on the waist and ankle bands. Notice how the ankles curve in here, and notice that effect on the last few pictures. It's subtle, but it's a neat effect.

The End.