Well, here we are again!

This week we are supposed to upcycle from a ready made garment.  I wasn’t sure what I had and thought I would have to go to a thrift store to find something.  That would have negated my intention to not buy ANYTHING for this contest, as I have way too much to sew up.

Then I remembered that I threw this dress into my upcycle box:

It is a lovely cotton eyelet summer dress from the LOFT.  I wore it twice…maybe.  It just really isn’t my style.

I orginally thought I would make a dress out of it for my girl.  Now wouldn’t that make a great dress for a little blonde waif?

Yes, yes it would…except…dress.

The last time she wore a dress on her own accord was at sometime this past winter when one of her friends came over and they played dress up.  They put on my shoes, some dresses and sprayed my Bath & Body Works bath sprays all over the place.  They smelled really good.

So…no dresses for her anymore.  ‘Tis a shame, but one must adjust to the tween or make lots of stuff that never gets worn.

Onward to making something for me!

I put on my thinking cap and browsed Pinterest for a bit until several different ideas finally gelled into my little brain.  I decided to use the bottom part of the dress as an underskirt for a plaid skirt with some leather accents.  Luckily I have a massive amount of fabric, so I didn’t have to buy anything.

Yay!

Here we have another drop-waist skirt (ya gotta know what works for you!), with layered squared off circle skirt cuts that I randomly picked up and sewed up to show the skirt underneath.  This is what I mean:

I love the look of layered skirts, so this was really fun to make and experiment with pulling up the different sections.  This has a definite “Scottish Kilt” flare going on up here.

Boots – Matisse Outlawed (out of production – got these on Zulily for a steal – the Renegade boot is pretty similar)

I should have really interfaced the top of the skirt, as the fabric has a little bit of stretch to it.  The bottom part is a bit heavy with all that fabric.  It is lined on top, but the lining isn’t really substantial.  I added belt loops, as I figured I would need a belt to keep this  sucker up with all the weight…plus it just looks cool.  The belt loops are the plaid fabric with a leather overlay.

I put in a side invisible zipper, and can I just say I love my new zipper foot?  Holy crap did that make putting in the invisible zipper a complete breeze!  Totally worth the $18.  I see many more invisible zippers in my future!

I was going to make a white lace shirt to go with this, due to the lace on the underskirt, but that was just a bit too “twee” for me all together.  Instead I used my TNT self-drafted princess seamed shirt pattern to make a fitted stretch poplin shirt.  The black poplin has a white stripe in it, and it isn’t very thick.  I doubled up the arms and put white bias binding between the layers to bring in the white from the collar.   The middle front is also lined.  With all that lining it adds a bit of bulk and not a lot of shape.

The collar is a nice brushed cotton from a flat bed sheet that I cut on a significant curve and it is lined.  I put the lace that was around the neckline of the dress into the edge of the collar.  So, this is what it looked like:

Still a bit too “twee” for me, so I  hacked that off.  When I wash the shirt the edges of the lace should get a bit frayed, and I think that will look cool.

It is hacked off in these pictures outside (I bet you are jealous at how well I hide the remote! 😉 ):

I stitched a channel with a button hole opening on the bottom side around the edge, and I threaded a white satin ribbon through it.   I wanted to be able to bunch up the collar and give it some volume.

The poplin is stretchy enough that I can just pull it over my head.

I also made the jewelry for this outfit.  I bought the beads around my birthday in December, and it was time to do something with them.  They are three necklaces and the earrings.  The silver chain was just a length folded on itself several times.  Pretty easy.  Making this kind of jewelry is fairly straight-forward.  It is just threading beads together.

So…I had a refashion on the underskirt and the collar, and the rest was from my fabric stash.  Probably NOT as much as I should have gone for the refashion part of this challenge, but I kept within my budget of $0 so I win in any case. 🙂

Well, I hope you liked my refashion/stash mix!

Voting opens on Friday for your favorite creation.