Previously on Makeover Monday, I showed you how to change a top’s long sleeves into cap sleeves, making a little-worn garment much more versatile. (Since this top is black, having cap sleeves also means showing a little more skin, as opposed to looking like I’m being swallowed up into a black hole. This is a good thing.)
Today, I’m doing another quick project: converting a dress I made a few years ago for ballroom dancing into a top I can wear with multiple tango skirts— and I just might get another skirt out of it too*!
For this Makeover Monday*, I have a quick tutorial for you: changing long sleeves into cap sleeves! It may sound tres simple, and it is, but as with so many of my projects, it also brings up issues that I wouldn’t necessarily think about if I wasn’t going to write about it afterwards.
My top is made with an interesting textured nylon fabric, very stretchy and lightweight; it also has a shapely, close fit, plus a bit of support, thanks to the two-layer construction of the fabric that helps to create the puckered texture. My favorite feature, though, is the neckline, a modified square. (I happen to love square necklines, but they are amazingly rare in ready-to-wear.) Here’s my top, pre-makeover:
A couple of weeks ago, I showed you how to crop thrift-shop yoga pants to capri length. Today, I’ll show you how I cropped a pair of jeans; the process is very similar, except that the jeans are a non-stretch fabric, requiring a different stitching technique.
Here are my jeans at their original length:
My jeans at their original length. (You may recognize them from some early Makeover Mondays.)
A couple of weeks ago, following my archaeologist daughter’s example, I started digging through a lot of old stuff. Specifically, garments that for various reasons I didn’t wear any more, but was curiously loath to discard. All right, maybe what I uncovered wasn’t as exciting as King Tut’s tomb, but a certain pattern did come to light: I found 5 different tops with nothing wrong with them at all— except their length. Yes, each one hovered just below my waistline, meaning they would ride up whenever I, well, moved. Not being 4 years old, I didn’t think midriff-baring would be cute, which I assume is why all 5 tops ended up in the same bag, lurking in shame in the back of my closet. What can I do with them?
A while back, I think during a phase when I was intrigued by various dresses-that-look-like-separates on the market, I remember thinking maybe I could come up with my own version, using some of these too-short tops. So when I discovered this beautiful jade-green silk/viscose knit top, I thought it was the perfect candidate.
Jade silk-blend knit thrift-shop top. It’s just a little too short on me to wear without fear of midriff-baring.
Last week, after discovering that I would be heading to Chicago for 8 days, I told you about my initial travel-wardrobe thought process. (This boiled down to the types of pieces I thought I’d need, taking lodging, events, and weather into account.) Since I will be leaving in about a week, my priority now is to create a color palette, so that’s what I’ll focus on today.
Aside: In case my punny use of ORD is causing a raised eyebrow or two, let me explain: ORD is the airport identifier for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. It will probably happen again. End of aside.
Changing Your Clothes is primarily about making the most out of what we already have, so that’s what I’ll do first: make over my Santa Fe Wardrobe from last fall. To my closet!
Oh. A funny thing happened on the way to my closet… I got distracted by this piece of fabric, bought just 2 days before I found out about this upcoming trip:
Cotton print fabric. This is a medium-weight cotton with a bit of stretch, but it was the print I couldn’t pass up! (I’m extremely picky about prints.) It’s destined for a vintage-inspired dress.
Previously on Makeover Monday, I showed you how to create a peplum out of a full skirt, and prepare it to be attached to a pencil skirt. Today, we’ll finish this project by sewing the peplum to the skirt, then reattaching the partially-removed zipper and the waistband.
Let’s get started, continuing from last week’s post, which got us to the point of pinning the peplum in place and adjusting the gathers.
1.Pin and machine-baste the gathered peplum to grey skirt.
Red Alert!If the zipper on your skirt is not an invisible zipper, like mine, reattach your zipper before adding the peplum.
Adding peplum to skirt. As shown, make sure that the seam allowance of your pencil skirt are folded out; this is where you will reattach your zipper. And fold the zipper-opening edges of your peplum under before pinning it to the skirt. Machine-baste, using previous stitching line as your guide.
Since today is Memorial Day here in the U.S., I’m taking a little Makeover Monday holiday, but I wanted give you at least a little inspiration! Here’s a sampling of my favorite trends (which may find their way into future makeovers), including ombre, color-blocking, and print mixing. I hope they’ll inspire you too!
Ombre: This is a trend that’s still going strong, which means that we’re seeing more and more creative interpretations. What if I…
… created an ombre effect by adding sequins?
Ombre created with several shades of sequins dress up this Louis Vuitton coat. (Click on the photo to see the entire LV Fall 2013 collection.)
For the past 2 Makeover Mondays, I’ve been experimenting to see how many things I could make from a single shirt. First, I took the collar off to wear on its own, then I tried making a sort of cowl/scarf hybrid with the body of the shirt. And today, I have a quick and easy project to make with the shirt sleeves!
I’ve had a number of ideas for using the shirt sleeves, but I’ve narrowed it down to my favorite, the concept of which is to make a scarf that, when worn, looks like you’ve draped a jacket or cardigan over your shoulders, you know, with the sleeves hanging down in front, or maybe loosely tied. That’s the idea, anyway.
Let’s start by taking a look at what’s left of my increasingly-cannibalized shirt:
What’s left of my shirt, after taking off the collar and the body below the arms. Hmm, it does kind of look like a shrug…
Last week on Makeover Monday, I showed you how to remove a collar from a button-down shirt, and finish the raw edges to create a fun, versatile accessory piece. Today, I decided to experiment with the rest of that shirt. We’ll see how this turns out…
Faced with the raw-edged remains of my now collarless-shirt, I thought I should at least give it a chance at a new life. After all, it’s a nice-quality, soft, lightweight cotton in a beautiful coral-meets-terracotta color, and it’s only the collar that’s gone:
Changing Your Clothes 