49-Cent Friday: Scrappy Skirt Refashion

For this week’s refashion, I wanted to make something springy…something I could wear for Easter.

I started out with several leftovers. Each had been purchased a while ago (before I started the blog).

Altogether I had a skirt, 2 blazers, and 2 sweaters. All are made from wool, and each had been used previously in a different refashion.

Refashion leftovers

I love how brightly colored everything is and how they all match the skirt!

Here’s the wool skirt.

I loved this skirt the moment I saw it!

I loved the pattern and the bright color.

I loved that it was a much larger size than what I wear because I knew that would give me a lot more material to work with.

NOTE: Whoever owned this skirt before it found it’s way to the thrift store didn’t launder it properly (dry clean only), so it shrank in the dryer and the lining ended up longer than the skirt. Since I was planning on dissecting it, that didn’t bother me at all. And since it’s wool, I was going to felt it anyway, so the process was already started for me!

Fuchsia wool blazer missing an arm

I can’t remember what I used the chopped off arm of this blazer for, but I’m guessing it was used for either a posy pin, or part of a pair of mittens.

Where’s my arm?

Another missing arm!

I’m pretty sure the arm of this magenta blazer was used to make up part of the satchel (pictured in the Ugly Coat Refashion – Suggestions Wanted post) I made for my daughter a couple of years ago.

Does this sweater look familiar?

This sweater was used in last week’s 49-Cent Friday post “Sweater Refashion“.

I love this color!

Here’s the last sweater included in this refashion. It’s made of not only wool, but a blend of angora rabbit hair, which makes it super soft!

I always wash everything I purchase from the thrift shop in hot water (unless it’s silk or something), so each article of clothing used for this refashion was already felted nicely.

The first thing I did was take out the lining from the skirt, and pick off the waistband (using my seam ripper).

Holy cow! This thing is huge!

I had to be careful in figuring out where to take the lining in, because the original skirt had pockets I wanted to keep.

Using my dress form as a guide, I figured out where I could take the lining in that would line the pockets up where they belonged.

See?

After pinning in place, I just ran the lining through my sewing machine and voilá!

Then I took in the too-big waistband.

Using the existing seam.

I took it in from just one side, because the other side had these cool closures…

Can’t remember what these are called.

After the lining and waistband were re-sized, I started cutting out the panels for the skirt…

Ooh pretty!

Then I pinned them on my dress form to make sure they would fit together nicely…

Notice the pocket panels?

When cutting the panels from the original skirt, I made sure to cut out the pocket panels first so that they would match up nicely. That certainly made my life easier when fitting everything together, as they were already shaped to fit the pockets on the lining.

After pinning all of the panels together, and making sure the fit was right, I sewed each one together…

whirrr

See how the waistband opens up?

sorta like a blanket binding.

After the skirt panels were sown together, all I had to do was shove the top of the skirt up into the waistband and sew it down to finish it off.

Easy peasy!

Now to iron out all those wrinkles!

Wrinkles be gone!

Check out my freshly pressed skirt!

I love the buttons on the front!

And the side view…

I think it would look better with a less blousy top.

I know  I started out with more than one 49-cent find, but since each piece used in this refashion was leftover from a previous refashion, I thought you’d be okay with it!

What do you think?

Question:

How are you getting creative this Easter (or Passover)? Any great recipes? Projects? 

If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Thanks!

Jen

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