Day 10 - On TIme!

This is my project officially for Day 10.  This one was fun mostly because it was crazy easy and straightforward, but also because I watched "The Giant Mechanical Man" simultaneously.  Super cute indie romantic comedy of sorts with Jenna Fischer (A.K.A. Pam from The Office) and Chris Messina and of course they fall in love.  It's just adorable.

Anyway, back on track - this is my Day 10 project!

As you can tell, nobody is happy about that before dress... Not the most flattering.  Addie didn't even want to get in the picture (she has very refined taste my little ladybird).

Here it is!  My new tunic.  I really love the sleeves on this one.

For this project I changed the neckline, I shortened the sleeves and I took about 8 inches off the hem to make it more of an appropriate tunic length.

This will be good as a spring tunic too paired with shorts!  A little early for that?  Yes, definitely.  But the real problem is that all the stores put out their spring collections so early!  They are just getting all of us up north way too prematurely excited.  Jerks.  I hope that groundhog was on to something...

Total Time: 1 Hour
Total Money Spent: $2
Outcome: Lovely Bright Tunic

Day 9, Maybe A Little Late.

Well my Saturday flew by.  I worked at job #2 until 1:30 AM so needless to say, I didn't feel much up to finishing my project.

However I had a good start on it, so it wasn't too much for me to finish today.

So here is the Before & After!

Looks a lot better huh?

This was a fairly straight forward refashion.

I just took the sleeves off, took in the width of the dress a little bit. and cut off about 3 inches from the hem.  Quite simple but changes the look completely.

Hope everyone is enjoying their football-less Sunday, feels a little weird around here...  I guess hockey it is then.  Go Sabres!

Total Time: 1 Hour 15 Min.
Total Money Spent: $ 2
Outcome: Easy Gray Year-Around Dress

P.S. Stay tuned for another post in a little bit!

Come On Bring It & Day 8.

Well the storm has hit us!  It's really not that bad, at least not yet... but it has blanketed Buffalo in a beautiful fresh clean snow which is always welcome.  I would have to say there is nothing I hate more than dirty gross piles of snow, or worse... mud everywhere.  Ick.  We really haven't gotten that much snow this winter either so it's fine be me.  As long as Spring gets its act together on schedule (and that is a big if).

Anyway, I worked both jobs today and both were quite slow due to the weather, but it still didn't give me much time to work on my project today.

This is what I pulled together post work day;

Like all of my Before dresses they need a good ironing, but regardless you get the idea!

I had a plan for this dress since the day I bought it (a year ago summer?).  Even though it sat there for a while in my studio, I'm glad I kept it around.

Although it's hard to see, there is a slit up the left side of the dress.  I wanted the bottom to be a pencil skirt which means you have to add a skirt if you want to walk, which I do prefer to do in my clothes.  The M-slit is really popular this spring, but I'm not really into the double slit.  I will stick to the side slit myself.  It's sexy without being too provocative.

All I did to this dress is lay one of my pencil skirts over the bottom part of the dress and cut!  I did have to rip out the zipper and put that back in, but overall it was a pretty easy change.  Also relatively quick - definitely necessary for a night like tonight.

Total Time: 1 Hour
Total Money Spent: $4
Outcome:  Flattering Pencil Dress

Polka Dots & Day 7.

Alright, so this was a major overhaul.  This dress took me close to 5 hours, but the good news is I love it!  It would just figure that I would spend 5 hours on something I hated or that didn't fit me, or worse that I had ripped in the process or something... but not today!  It looks so good!

Well, I'll let you decide.

Day 7 Before & After!

Yay!  What do you think?  So much better right?

More views of my new polka dot vintage dress.  I'm in love.

Let's see, where to begin on this one.

Well I cut the bottom skirt off, then I cut about 5 inches off the waist and took about 3 inches off both sides of the skirt.  I added darts to the back of the skirt and the front and back of the bodice.  Then I made darts at the top of the bodice to make it more form fitting and made straps out of the remainder of the fabric.  Lots of work!  It looks totally different though and it was well worth my time if I do say so myself.

Total Time:  4 Hours 45 Min.

Total Money Spent: $0 (My Momma got it for me, I think from a friend?  I'm not sure, but free for me!)

Outcome:  Polka Dot Party Dress

Thanks Momma!

Day 6 & It's Chilly.

Day 6 is over and my project complete!  This was a fairly simple project which was perfect for my busy Wednesday.  Also it has been very chilly here so I thought the more sweaters I have to bundle up in, the better!

Here's my Before & After!

A new sweater in my favorite color!  Sunshine yellow is my ultimate most favorite color in the whole wide world.  You can't be sad and wear this color.  It's just impossible.

This was as simple as anything could be which I was grateful for on a day like this.  All I did was rip open the seam on the shoulder down to the sleeve, and sew the raw edges and add the ribbon!  So easy, and so much cuter.

Well, now that I've done this to my yellow sweater, I kinda wanna do it to all of them.... It makes it cute and even a little sexier than it was prior.  Also cuts down on the boxiness.  

Hope everyone got a little bit of sunshine like we did here.  It always makes the day so much nicer.

Total Time: 25 Min.

Total Money Spent: $1.75

Outcome: Sweater and Great Layering Piece (to hold me over 'til spring!)

Day 5 & More Salmon.

Well Day 5 has come and gone, and I have finished my project in the nick of time!  This one was so hard because I had no plan in mind for what I wanted to do with it.  However, I think over the course of the evening it started to shape into something all on it's own.

Before & After Day 5!

See what I'm saying about the salmon?  I guess I am drawn to that color more than I knew...

So I took off about an inch off the hem, the sleeves, cut the neckline and added the cowl.  Guess where the fabric I used for the cowl came from?  Yep, yesterday's dress.  It was a perfect match!  Crazy.  The sash I made was also from yesterday's dress scraps too.  That's why I always save scraps - well if they're signifacent...  Lucky for me I did!

Let's hope it warms up so I can wear all my new clothes (without cardigans of course).  I hear it's supposed to be a balmy 30 degrees tomorrow!  Spring?  So soon?  Ha.

Total Time: 3 Hours
Total Money Spent: $2
Outcome: Another Salmon/ Black Dress!  (Just what my wardrobe was missing.)

Day 4.

Another busy day here for me.  I worked a full two jobs but fortunately I got home early from my night job so I had plenty of time to finish my Day 4 project!

Here's the Before & After;

Granted that the Before dress needed a good ironing, but it was still pretty lame despite the wrinkles.  However the After dress is ironed and cute!

To fix this oddly giant dress that also fit me kind of, (I know it's weird, but you saw the before picture!) I took off about a foot off the hem...maybe more - it was such an awkward length.  I shaped the hem so it was slightly longer in the back and I made the neckline more of a mock sweetheart.  All easy adjustments that make a world of difference.

That black mass at the bottom of the screen is guess who?  Yep, my little photo diva.  

Happy Monday!!

Total Time:  1 Hour 10 Min.

Total Money Spent: $3

Outcome:  Party/Cocktail Dress

Football & Day 3.

This post actually has nothing to do with football other than the fact that it's Superbowl Sunday and I have successfully completed another refashion!
And of course that all of America is beating with the sound of high-fives and chip crunching, but  I won't bore you with more football talk.

So....

Voila!

I also made this belt!  (Not today of course, gosh no.)

So what do you think?!

As you can see we got quite a bit of snow yesterday with the possibility of more to come tomorrow.  Oh goody. At least Addie is enjoying a good snow romp.

And yes, it was very very very cold outside with no sleeves.

For this dress I took the collar completely off, let out the pleats in the front, created a deep-V neckline in the front with a slight V to mimic the front in the back, and made the sleeves shorter.  Seemingly not that much work, but it did end up taking quite a bit of time.  Although I did love the collar before, it felt too frigid and old-fashioned, the new neckline makes it more my style.

I love the buttons going down the side!

Let's hope for a snow day tomorrow out here!  (Not that I work anywhere where that is possible, but hey a girl can dream.)  All pajamas inside out!

Total Time: 3 Hours

Total Money Spend: $6

Outcome: Sassy Superbowl Sunday Dress

Day 2 With Hearts.

It is day 2 of my Fun-A-Day project, and I did spend probably more time than I had on this particular refashion.....however, I also worked a 12 hour day.  So I'm just proud I got it all done before 2 AM!
Yayayaya.  Well, I won't keep you waiting - here we go;

Let's not get distracted by the beautiful little ladybird (Addie - my beautiful weasel lady).

I took it in all around a whole lot - probably about 5 inches from every seam I could.  The end result was something I was very pleased with.  I knew that I picked this up from the thrift store for a reason and finally it has come to fruition!

Added some heart elbow patches!

In a fit of Valentine's Day festivity - I thought that elbow patches in the shapes of hearts was a good idea.  I took pieces of old gray wool I had scraps of and just appliqued them on to the elbows.  So lovely.

A couple more pictures of my new sweater dress, and of course my favorite helper down below.

 She's actually not a helper at all, but I still give her one million kisses as often as I can.

Total Time: 2 Hours.
Total Money Spent: $2 - Sweater $.50 Elbow Patches (mostly cost of interfacing)
Ourcome: Valentine's Day Sweater

Fun-A-Day February.

In Buffalo, every February (or at least the last two) artists, musicians, writers, & creative people do something everyday and in March there is a show to display everyone various daily fun.  Last year, I didn't participate but did go to the show where I realized how cool of a thing this is.  So this February, I decided to do a refashion-a-day.

Hopefully I can keep up with them, but here is the first!

Voila!

So even though it doesn't look that different, it actually took me an hour and 45 minutes to make these minor changes.  I did take it from something I wouldn't wear, to something that I really like!  So day 1 = Success!

What I did was shorten the hem about 4 inches, brought the sides of the top in about 1 1/2 inches, and made the sleeves much smaller too.  All minor changes, but it updates the dress to something wearable.

Total Time:  1 Hour 45 Minutes

Total Money Spent: $3

Outcome:  Something I love!

Yay Fun-A-Day!