80s Nightmare to Skater Dress Dream - Vintage Refashion

This might be the hardest one for me to give up. Husband and I were gifted an extra quality time day by the universe. He was released from police academy a day early because they are taking a day from us this week. Since it fell on a school day we were actually able to go adventuring in Nashville. We haven't done that in forever, so we went to our favorite antique stores and then some new ones. I found this one and fell in love with the fabric. I almost didn't get it, because it didn't have a tag and I was going to have to ask how much it was (yay social anxiety). Thankfully I have the most supportive husband ever and he pushed me to get it. And you'll see below why I'm so grateful he did!

I mean, check out that fabric. Seriously so beautiful and even more beautiful in person. It's lightweight and soft, perfect for spring and summer. I could just see how gorgeous this was going to be without the sleeves and slightly shorter. And obviously ditch the doily bib thing.

Run down:

• Carefully removed the bib collar thingy
• Blind hem stitched the neckline back together
• Removed the sleeves (again, be careful with this)
• Folded over and stitched the arm holes
• Cut several inches off the bottom
• Sewed a new shirt hem on the bottom

So I'm not gonna lie. This one did not go perfectly. That list up there makes it sound like a piece of cake. I tried to salvage the sleeves and make them capped, because I love a good puff sleeve. But there were way too many gathers and no matter what shape I went with, it still looked dated. I should have just made it sleeveless to begin with, because look at that!

Someone needs to buy this one before I just keep it… even though I shouldn't.

Please feel free to share if you liked this refashion! I'm on Pinterest and Instagram too.

Dramatic Attic on IG gives you first look at everything!

Pickin'

I have this "bad" habit of picking refashion garments that need a ton of work. Like, take hours to come up with a plan, sew a million times and rip it out and do it again, and scream and punch things, ton of work. Sometimes I forget that the "picking" is part of the work, and sometimes lady luck is on my side and I source a gorgeous vintage that needs absolutely no work.

This beaut is up in the shop! I added a mini etsy to my right toolbar so you can just clicky there. Easy peasy! Let me know if you have any requests! A ton of refashions/vintage are coming to the blog this week! Stay tuned!

Clearly I like plaid - Vintage Refashion

It's no secret I love handmade. However, this dress was clearly handmade vintage and definitely needed some work.

The sleeves were the main problem. I took the before photo only a couple days after getting my tattoos and it was pretty uncomfortable to put this dress on. Everything fit fine, except the sleeves. They weren't even in width and even my scrawny arms had a hard time getting into that cuff. They had been hand sewn shut from the outside. Sorta bizarre. I also had to take out the sides next to the sleeves some. They were completely uneven keeping me from moving my arms very much at all.

The fabric was also super stiff.

I had to wash and steam dry (in my fancy pants washer/dryer combo) to break up the stiffness. It came out feeling soft and comfy, but had very slightly shrunk. It didn't change anything about the dress except made the flaws in the sleeves even more apparent.

So I shortened them on an angle and made a new shirt hem to finish.

I think they turned out super cute with the gathers making it puffed.

I shortened it by about 4 inches and used the extra fabric to make a pointed belt.

The pockets are still in kind of a weird place (right there in the front), but still pockets! And, ya know, charm and stuff. (but mostly… it's a dress with pockets!)

This one will be up in the shop also!

Thank you for following my journey. I have a ton of projects coming up, so stay tuned!

I Rock Alotta Polka Dots - Vintage Refashion

So let's get right into it. This gal was a size 16 basically buttoned up muumuu. I think my face says how I feel about it. Regardless of size this thing would be ill fitting on anyone.

So I had to remove the sleeves first (seam ripped). Then I was left with huge arm holes of course that didn't fit the new sleeves of this dress.

I loved the darts that made it simple, but flattering so I left those. And I wasn't sure about the buttons.

The lighting is HORRIBLE because this is a phone pic (I promise next time I'll use my camera for before pics), but they are this almost iridescent white. The soft square shape felt unique to me, though.

So as you can see, I kept the buttons!

• After carefully taking off the sleeves I took in the bodice by creating some pretty huge darts on the sides. This also took care of the oversized arm holes
• Sewed a new shirt hem to finish off the sleeves
• Cut several inches off the bottom
• Sewed new shirt hem on the bottom
• There were these weird tails in the back that were supposed to cinch the waist, but they were too far down, so I seam ripped those out
• Blind stitched the open darts from the "tails" closed again
• Made a little belt with the extra fabric from the bottom (pointed)

I'm about 5"1 and this falls right in the middle of my knee. So It would be shorter on a taller girl, of course, but I think the sweet capped sleeves and belt make this such a cute summer dress!

The belt cinches it in perfectly for me, but it's not attached, and I think a red or yellow belt would be so perfect with this! I didn't take the sides in to be completely fitted to me, so it gives a little more wiggle room for sizing.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out! This is my first personal refashion (not counting the one for school) that I'm listing in the shop! I have done many refashions before, but I've always kept them. I'm excited to add more for sale! 

Let me know if you have any requests!

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Plaid Nightmare to Plaid Pinafore - Vintage Refashion

I found this dress back when I was searching for the Africouture refashion. I loved the plaid. It made me think of kind of 90's grunge/punk-ish. I wasn't sure if I would figure out something to do with it, but I thought what the hey! I'm glad I picked it up! This is definitely more of a refashion for a specific taste, but I hope y'all like it!

It was too long and the v-neck was so low the arm holes didn't even kind of work and it made the waistline too far down.

I obviously kept it oversized. I liked the almost baby doll feel it gave the dress.

Run down:

• I took the shoulders up a couple inches to fix the waistline issue
• I left the arm holes oversized to create an oversized pinafore style
• Chopped off many inches from the bottom
• Created a new shirt hem
• Changed out the buttons to black modern ones
• Chopped up an old belt
• Sewed said belt to the back of the dress to give an option to cinch and create more of a halter if desired

In the first picture I have the belt on the widest hole to keep it oversized. It definitely looks wider, but when it hangs it has a nice laid back feel to it.

It can be worn with layers or by itself if you are like me and not very busty. haha

It gives a nice side boob thing if you dig that, and if not a really cute bandeau would look good.

When I bring the belt in it creates more of a halter top.

I love all the ways I can wear this one! I also love that it has slightly more of a punk look to it now, so as it shows wear it will just fit the aesthetic even more.

I hope you enjoyed this refashion!

And let me know if you have any questions or requests!

From Dress to Skirt

I bought this dress in the children's department over a year ago and have only worn it once because although I loved the skirt so much, the top just wasn't flattering. Instead of selling or donating it, I decided to turn it into a skirt! Below is the before and after.

Run down of how it went down:

•seam ripped the zipper out

•cut the knit top from the skirt 

•blind hem stitched the knit to the serged hem

•sewed snaps to the binding for closure 

Boom!

And actually throw in a couple more steps where I tried different machine stitches to make the new waistband and horribly failed. We all know knit stretches right? Well just remember that when you're trying to machine sew it to something that is not knit. :/ Just learn from my mistakes and hand sew it the first go around. 

Stains? No problem!

That title seriously sounds like something Monica from FRIENDS would say. Wish I could say I'm sorry about it.

So anyway, I bought this bralette right before the Melanie Martinez concert about a month ago, and needed an all white one. It was cheap, obviously, since it's from Forever 21. So when I noticed, the second time I was going to wear it, that it had some light blue looking stains on it, I had half the mind to toss it.

We all know I am not a fan of throwing clothes in a trashcan, so I thought of a solution. I really liked the idea of embroidering white on white to keep the possibility of wearing this with what I bought it for. So I decided to do some french knots, lazy daisies, and a satin stitch rose over the stains.

Good as new! And if you can google or use Pinterest, you can pretty much learn to do these stitches! Freshen up some cardigans or cover some unwanted blemishes on something you were going to throw out!

An "actual" refashion will be up on the blog next!