Refashion Outfit for ME!!

I’m so excited to be participating in Refashion Month, hosted by House of Estrela!

Refashion was actually one of the main reasons I started sewing in the first place. I felt like we were getting rid and buying so many new clothes and one day I had the thought, “what if I could make our clothes into new clothes for the kids?” and “what if I could make the kids’ clothes last a little bit longer by adding a thick cuff on the bottom of sweatpants?”. I was determined never to buy fabric and just use what we already had to make new clothes…unfortunately, I quickly got addicted to buying fabric ;-). However, I still do refashion quite a bit…either using our old clothes or clothes from the thrift store (my new favorite clothing shop!). I often go to the thrift store to buy “fabric” to make something, especially when I get sick of the options Joann’s has for fabric!

Usually when I refashion, I make stuff for the kids because to me it’s so much easier to make something big into something little than making something big into something else big! So, for this Refashion Month, I challenged myself to make a whole refashion outfit for ME! I went to the thrift store and dug through my wardrobe and my husband’s wardrobe to find things to refashion. I found a women’s jumper at the thrift store, an old white maternity shirt of mine, and a sweater of my husband’s that I bought and he has never worn ;-). I refashioned those three things into a skirt, shirt, and cardigan sweater for me and I’m super pleased with the result…I have already worn the outfit several times!! Here’s my finished outfit…

For the skirt, I used the jumper I found at the thrift store.

This jumper is totally not my style, but I love the fabric! I was originally going to make shorts, but i really like to wear skirts more than shorts, so I decided to go for a skirt instead! My favorite woven skirt pattern these days is The Everyday Skirt by Liesl and Co.. This skirt pattern has a flat front waistband and an elastic back, but I decided to mix it up and make both the front and back waistbands flat with an exposed zipper in the back! The pattern is broken into more pieces than just a plain gathered skirt, so it was perfect for this project given that this jumper was actually a bit snug on me to begin with width wise (it had plenty of length!). When I cut this jumper apart, I used every scrap of fabric, but I forgot to try and salvage the zipper, so I had to buy a new zipper 😦

I really love the way this skirt turned out! It definitely gets a lot of wear!

For my shirt, I used my old Maternity shirt…

I had been wanting to try The Nettie Bodysuit Pattern by Closet Case Files, so I figured I’d give it a shot! I am so in love with this pattern! I love to wear shirts tucked into my skirts and the bodysuit is really such a great concept in my opinion (although it took some time to wrap my mind around it). For this one, I didn’t have enough length on the shirt to make this a full snap-under-the-crotch bodysuit, I had to cut it off and make just a long, tight shirt, but it still works nicely, I think. Besides cutting it off, I made the bodysuit pattern in a size medium. I need to make some adjustments in the next one I make, as the fit isn’t perfect, but I do have broad shoulders, so that makes sense. The pattern has the option for a normal high back, so I’m not sure I’ll make the scooped back next time. I love the scooped back, but I’m not sure it’s the most flattering on me!

And finally, for the cardigan, I used my husband’s sweater that he has never worn.

This pic was taken after I had already cut it apart and then realized I forgot to take a before picture…oops!

I totally wung (if that’s a word?) this without a pattern…I just used another cardigan I have to downsize the sweater, then I cut it down the front and sewed on some woven bias tape. In hindsight, I totally should have downsized so the front ended up bigger than the back so there was room to overlap the front edges, but that concept totally didn’t occur to me until it was too late, so I ended up having to sew thickish bias tape on to stick out. I had intended for the woven bias tape to go to the inside like a facing. I didn’t put any buttons on, as I never button my cardigan sweaters anyways!

The sweater is twisted in this pic…it’s not weird and uneven in real life ;-). Didn’t notice that until way after the photoshoot!

Here are a few more pictures of the whole outfit…

Whoa, it was windy that day!

If you’ve made it to the end, be sure to check out all the other refashions and refashion tutorials!

Also, be sure to enter the giveaway to win an awesome bundle of patterns from 12 designers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don’t forget to post pics of your refashions in the flickr group: https://www.flickr.com/groups/2665071@N20/