One-Year Anniversary

This month marks the One-Year Anniversary of my first refashioning project! 

First Refashion Project: Wide-leg trousers to loose fit straight-leg pants. I just love styling them with the pant legs rolled up, a simple tee, and some cute leather sandals!

I can't say this was my first sewing project or even my first clothing project, the time I made a skirt with my grandma and burnt a hole in it with the iron takes that award. And another time in high school, I made these ridiculous patchwork pants that were meant to be pajamas but turned into my clown halloween costume, that one will always hold a special place in my heart too. My mother can also attest to my early dislike for homemade clothes, as many of the dresses she made me had far too puffy sleeves (sorry Anne, I know you would be disappointed).

But I digress. Here I am after a year of refashioning and I love it! I love wearing something nearly everyday that I have altered to some extent or another! I love that no one else has anything quite like it. And I really love that it saves me money and saves the world resources (a little bit, right?).

Last year I found Merrick's blog and her refashion of some wide-leg trouser's just like mine! I thought, WOW, I love that and it looks so simple. So I took the plunge. Now I'm in deep with refashioning. Okay that was a dorky pun off of a metaphor (who does that?). 

Here are my top three refashioning blogs who provide me with great daily inspiration:

1. Merrick's Art - She really makes things so easy, I just love that!

2. Cotton & Curls - So cute and so stylish. You have to check out all the refashion tutorials she has, it dwarfs my collection!

3. ISLY - Her blog is an assortment of crafty outlets, but she really know's her sewing technique plus her tutorials are really well designed.

And these are all my refashion projects this year:

The Pants. I wont go through each, but most just had simple alternations like skinnifying or making the waist smaller. I do have a skinny jean tutorial here if your just tuning in.

1. Navy and white dress turned skirt: I blogged all about this one here.

2. Red pleated skirt: This was an awesome buy at a yard sale but a much harder fix. It was a couple sizes to big, and trying to line up the pleats so that I could sew it smaller was tough!

3. Black floral skirt: I just adore this skirt, but prior to adjusting it's length it had such an awkward drape to it. It hit me mid-calf, but not in the trending tulle tutu skirt sort of way, so it simply had to go shorter. Now I LOVE it. I ended up taking the length off the top and sewed the elastic waist band back on so I could keep the adorable polka dots on the bottom.

4. Cream lace skirt: Still possibly my favorite refashion, it was an a-line skirt I found in mother-in-law's old clothes, but I much prefer the pencil shape myself! I blogged about it here.

5. Chiffon maxi skirt: This was another one of those love-hate relationships. I love the skirt, hated the process, and still don't know if I should attempt it again. I'm really hoping to do a jersey knit maxi skirt though, and I'm sure it won't be a bugger like this! I blogged about the chiffon maxi skirt here.

All five of the skirts I've made or adjusted in the last year.

The Tops. These are perhaps some of my favorite because I was so intimidate to sew tops but when they turned out so well, I got over a lot of my fears!

1. Black peplum top: I keep saying there will be a tutorial post to come and please hold me to that, because I love this one! It started as one of my husbands tee's he never wore and the solid black color made the perfect first peplum!

2. White lace peplum top: This one started as a dress (you can see the before here) and I followed much of the same process as the black top, except I gave it a slight high-low hemline.

3. Black 3/4 sleeve cardigan: This was more of an experiment really, but because the cardigan was wearing out I thought I'd see how it would look as 3/4 sleeves instead of long sleeve. It's an okay change, but certainly not my favorite.

1. Black Dress: Simple changes can really make a piece so much better! All I did was add a little over an inch of extra fabric to the hem. For someone like me who likes to stay modest, even an inch of fabric can make the difference between being comfortable or not, and I wore it to church last Sunday feeling fab!

2. Red Heart Sweatshirt: This was my first blog post (here), so it's kind of fun to look back and see how much my blog has changed. Yes, even in 5 months!

Just a close up on the details of the lengthened hemline and ombre painted heart.

The whole gang!

Dresses and Skirts  |  Pants  |  Tops and Sweaters

So, Happy Anniversary Refashioning! You are becoming quite the pal. I should probably dedicate this much love to a post about my other one true pal, my hubby, or he might get jealous.

Were there any particular items that you want more information on? Maybe a dedicated blog post? Feel free to ask away!

---Elizabeth