Shoe Refashion

I bought these lovely shoes on sale at a Ross Dress for Less. I love them, but I thought they needed a bit of a pick-me-up in the way of color! So, out came the paints and brushes to work some shoe magic!

My favorite color this year seems to be teal. I keep painting everything teal! But I also wanted to put in some gold, as well!

What do you think? Did I do them justice? I'm in love and I've been wearing them all week, since the weather has finally decided to cooperate with the calender season.

In other news, one of my friends in my bible study is pregnant. I'm very happy for her, but I am also sad, because she was the only married lady (besides myself, obviously) who came to bible study and didn't have any children. Besides myself, there are two unmarried college-aged ladies without kids who come. Everyone else has at least one munchkin and many have a munchkin on the way as well as two or three running around..

I feel like I am some sort of rare creature, almost thirty and not a baby in sight. But oh well, there is always something to paint or knit...

But I still wish there was someone relatable in my demographic in my bible study. When you have kids you can't really hang out at the drop of a hat, or make non-kid plans very often. Can anyone else, well, relate?

Boho Refashion

I found this really awesome cotton print mumu dress at Goodwill. Sadly, it was incredibly wrong for my body type. As an pear shape, drop waist dresses do nothing to help balance my hips with the rest of my body. Instead, they tend to accent the one area I am always trying to minimize.

Naturally, because I love the print and feel of this dress, I just refashioned it. It's super fun and flattering to my body shape now!

Here is what it looks like by itself, without the vest. I like it both ways, but the vest helps further define my waist.

 How would you refashion it?

Tote

I made a tote the other day out of a very old-fashioned crochet top that someone gave me. I think it was my grandmother who gave it to my mom to give it to me to refashion! So that's what I did.

I added two inside pockets and one outside on the edge, for holding pens! I love it. I am amazed at what some things can be turned into.

I saved the sleeves of this to make my own crochet dress out of bits and pieces of things...

Painted Toms

Last week I decided to paint my Toms shoes! I was going for a galaxy look, but they came out more paint-splattered.

I love them, and have been wearing them everywhere!

Refashion it: High-Lo

So, I found this pretty purple dress at Goodwill. I love it, but it is a bit long. I wanted to spice it up! I decided to add a high-lo hem to the dress, and show off my new galaxy leggings that I bought from target at the same time. I think they really make this outfit. Well, the concept for creating a high-lo hem is really simple. Basically, you turn, cut, and sew.

• First, turn the dress on the side. Lay it flat and make sure the skirt back and front is flush with each other.

• Then, cut a swoosh! See the line in the middle of my dress? I used that as a guide, because I knew that is where it would hit my sides.

• Before I sewed it, I tried it on to make sure I had cut correctly. Then, I hemmed my edge with a zig-zag stitch because my dress is made of knit (stretchy) material.

I love my new (to me) dress and my (to infinity) and beyond leggings. How would you style galaxy leggings? I think they go great with simple one-tone dresses to show off all their funky business. I've wanted a pair of these leggings forever. And by forever, I mean, ever since I knew they existed. Which might have been only a year or two. Or three.

Linking up with Skirtember!

Dress Refashion

I found this black dress at Goodwill, and decided it would be perfect for a remake! I wanted something dark to wear my new galaxy leggings with.

And, yes, the first thing I did was remove those terrible white buttons. Then I added a high-low hem, with a line of lace on the bottom (you can't really see it) and I also added some lace to the top. Somehow when altering this, I made the bust really small. I had to squeeze into it. 

I am sure you will see this dress make an appearance in a more photogenic setting one day, but for now this is all you get. My husbands computer area and me. Hah. 

The finished dress reminds me of something out of the 20s, kinda flapper style? I really like it and can't wait to wear it out somewhere!

Mini Skirt Refashion

The story always starts out the same: Well, I found this hideous dress at goodwill, but I had an idea...

 

Anyway, I love anything with floral fabric, and that's how this first caught my eye. I envisioned a cute little skirt and perhaps enough leftover to make a bag or an apron! Yesterday I sewed up the mini skirt.

 Sadly, it was raining so I had to take pictures inside. I never know how to take pictures inside...hah.

 But I do love my new skirt :)

More painting

Sadly, all I own is the color blue right now in fabric paint. Since I seem to be painting everything in sight, I clearly need to buy a few more colors. Not everything needs to be turquoise!

before

This is my lap top bag. Just like the other tote I painted, it is fax leather. I used tulip fabric paint and did two layers. This bag has little groves in the leather, and it took a while for the paint to be smooth. In some places I had to go back and add a little. But the end result is awesome!

 I really need to buy more colors. I'm thinking next: gold, peach, and mint!

Painting

I've been--uh, obsessed lately with painting things. It's really interesting to take something that may not look so great and jazz it up with a bright pop of color or two!

Last week I painted this fax leather bag I had laying around! It's just one of those bags from forever 21, you know, the generic slouchy tote. I merely painted it with two coats of Tulip fabric paint, and its as good as new. Oh, did I forget to mention that I absolutely adore it now? 

 

Now I'm just asking myself what I should paint next.

How to: Tote

I made myself a little market tote this past weekend!

I created this tote from a really weird dress that my friend Beth gave me. Friends that understand DIY and reconstruction obsessions are awesome!

For starters, this tote used to look like this:

Then I cut it up and...

added a liner,

folding that over to cover my seams...

and last, added a nice strap!

I love my new tote!

Dress Refashion

I found this flower dress at Goodwill the other day and I loved the pretty teal color and lace collar! The print reminded me of something you would now find at forever 21, you know, cut into a little tea dress or swishy skirt?

However, this dress currently looked like something an older lady would wear. So I bought it and changed it.

I wore it to church on Sunday and received many compliments!

Tea Dress Refashion

So, another refashion! I found this gorgeous floral print dress at Goodwill and I just couldn't say no. Problem? The dress was a size 6, and didn't fit me, and it also was that awkward-I'm-a-grandmother-mid-calf-length.

I wanted something shorter and cuter, and also something that fit me in the hips! (I am size 6/8 for upper body, and size 10/12 for lower: Pear shapes represent!)

I cut the dress into three pieces. The middle piece I discarded (due to it not fitting my hips) I then used the bottom piece as the skirt, gathering the back to make it fit flush with the bodice. I sewed it on using a zigzag stitch, because this garment is made of knit material.

Now I have a cute mini dress! But it still needed some pizzaz! I decided to add a triangle cutout to the back. All I did was cut out a triangle from lace and pin it to the dress, sew around, and then remove the material behind the triangle. I'm sure this isn't the "by the book" way you are supposed to do this, but it worked for me.

Last, I added a pretty collar to make the dress pop!

I can't wait to wear my new tea dress! I found that I love refashioning things. You get a whole new outfit with minimal work (less then creating something new totally from scratch). Have you refashioned anything lately?

Skirt Refashion

So, I have this really weird shirt that I bought some time at goodwill. It fails at fitting me, and has been in my "refashion" pile for awhile now. Today I decided to actually do something with it!

cut off the bottom 

Remove the Zipper

• I had to remove the piece of side zipper that was still attached. It went up further on the shirt so when I removed the bottom to make a skirt, I had to cut it in half.

Add a Side Zipper

• I added a working zipper for the skirt. and cut off the extra fabric at the top.

 

Wear

Have you refashioned anything lately?