Refashion Runway Season Four: All Stars – Week Five: Pantone Blue: Riverside Challenge

I can’t believe we’ve made it to the fifth and final week of the Refashion Runway Challenge. This season has been so much fun and has also been incredibly challenging.

For this week’s refashion I was lucky enough to find a king-sized sheet set at a dollar-a-pound Goodwill in the very color I needed! Woot! While at the Goodwill I Googled an image of the Pantone Blue: Riverside shade, and was able to make sure the colors matched up.

By the way, check out this beauty I was lucky enough to find at my neighbor’s yard sale last weekend.

Refashion Runway Season Four: All Stars – Week Four: Tunic Challenge

Here we are – it’s week four of the Refashion Runway Competition! For this week’s theme I decided to make a boho-gypsy style tunic.

This refashion had actually been brewing in my brain for some time, but knowing how time-consuming it would be, I had put it off. Thanks to the competition I now had the perfect excuse to get it done!

I started with this men’s vintage, plaid shirt (snaps and all), and several other scraps and shirts from my refash stash.

I cut off the bottom of the shirt at the waistline, removed the sleeves, and then took in the sides.

Refashion Runway Season Four: All Stars – Week Three: Buttons Challenge

It’s button week!

As you can see I have a decent stash of buttons.

For this week’s Refashion Runway challenge, I wanted to make an entire outfit that fit the button theme.

To start out, I grabbed a plain black t-shirt, an image I found online, some iron-on adhesive, and a plethora of buttons.

Refashion Runway Season Four: All Stars – Week Two: Metallic Challenge

I’m so excited for you to see what I’ve been working on for this week’s Refashion Runway Challenge.

Ever since I found out all of the themes for this season, I’ve been looking most forward to this week because of the metallic theme.

First of all, I decided to use a couple of curtains that I was given a while ago, but never had the right sized windows to use them on.

Refashion Runway Season Four: All Stars – Week One: Velvet Challenge

I was so excited when I found out Beth (The Renegade Seamstress) was hosting another season of Refashion Runway, and ecstatic when she asked me to participate as a competitor. I mean, how could I say no?

Velvet is this week’s theme and I found two velvet garments to work with.

As you can see neither one was really doing anything for me – they’re not very flattering to say the least!

I started out by cutting off the top of the gigantic velvet dress.

At first I was thinking about having a maxi length dress, but then decided

Necktie Refashion: DIY Tie Necklace & Flower Pin

Do any of you refashionistas out there ever wonder what to do with the leftovers from your refashions?

Do they end up cluttering your craft room and driving you crazy?

Well I know that’s true for me, but today I decided to do something about it!

For my daughter’s last birthday I made her this adorable necktie skirt out of a bunch of my husband’s ties that he no longer wore, plus some that I thrifted…

Necktie Skirt

I loved the way she looked in it so much, that I decided to make her a tie skirt for Christmas (using Christmas ties)…

DIY Homemade Felt Coasters

I’ve noticed lately that my coasters are grungy and stained, and really need to be tossed out.

So I decided to replace them with a homemade set, made from felt.

Luckily for me, I have a ginormous stash of felted wool sweaters and blazers to choose from. I’ve made a lot of hats, scarves, mittens and purses out of felted wool, which leaves me with a lot of wool scraps (perfect for this project!).

I started out with these wool blazer scraps that I cut into 4″ circles…

Felt circles

I stacked 3 of the 4″ circles and stitched them together using a blanket stitch.

Throwback Thursday – Beachwear Refashion

Before and After
Throwback Thursday Refashion

Who’s that girl?

Can you say Throwback Thursday?

Yep, that’s  me at 12 years old, at my first 4-H fashion show…yep, fashion show.

I came upon this picture the other day while going through an old box of keepsakes.

Here’s an old pattern that looks like the one I might’ve used…

Easter Dress Refashion

I know I haven’t posted in a while.

I had a busy weekend celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary with the hubs!  My parents took the kiddies for a few days and the fella and I celebrated with STEAK!  Yummy!  We also watched a couple of movies and went out to eat at my favorite burger joint.  Hey, we don’t get out much, so we figured we’d take advantage of the free child-care. Ha!

 

Anyway, back to the refashion.

So a while ago, while shopping at Mel Trotter (a local thrift store), I found this for a mere 49 cents…

Hmm, looks like an outdated Easter dress to me. But hey, for only .49 I figured it would be the perfect candidate for my first refashion. I mean, if I completely mess it up I’m not out much!

First, I got out the seam-ripper and got busy picking off that flower…

Since I had my seam-ripper handy, I then used it to take out the drapey thing off the top…

With all that extra drapey material, I can probably make a scarf out of it (2 refashions for the price of one… woot woot!)

So the next thing I did was hack off some of that length…

Length hacked!

Then it needed to be sewn along the bottom raw edge…

Stitchin’ away!

I made sure to do a basting stitch so that I could gather the bottom a little bit.
Then I tucked it under and pinned it to the inside waist seam…

Pinned!

I was going for a peplum look.
So after getting it all pinned, I stitched in the ditch to hide the stitches. If you want a better explanation of this technique, here’s a great post via Diana’s Sewing Lessons.

You can see that the needle stays in the “ditch” (or seam), so the new stitches stay hidden.

Once it was all stitched in place, there was only one thing left to do…

Does this look familiar?

It’s the flower I removed earlier. I thought I would sew a safety pin on it, so that it wasn’t permanently attached.

So that’s it! The peplum wasn’t as poufy as I had hoped, so I added a belt and clipped the flower pin on, and voila`!

All done!

If you need a reminder; here is a different view of the before…

Ready to frolic in my frock.

Which look did you prefer? The before or the after?

I hope you all had fun reading about my refashion.
Stay tuned to see what I’ll be up to next!
~Jen

 

How to Make an Infinity Scarf in Less Than 30 Minutes

Hey everybody! Good day from Michigan, where we finally have some snow : )

I have loved making infinity scarves ever since I learned how to make them from the Cottage Home.

They’re quick and easy to make…my favorite kind of project…and they look great : )

Here’s how to make one in seven easy steps.

STEP ONE: Pick your fabric. Below is a picture of four fabrics I purchased specifically for scarves, ultimately deciding to go with the vintage-y rose material for today’s scarf, (it matched my outfit).

ooh pretty!

STEP TWO: Measure the fabric. Now the blog that I learned how to make these from says to cut 2 rectangles 12″ x 60″.