Refashion & 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup

For July’s link-up, I was determined to have a maxi dress and came home with two style combos from Goodwill. Each style included a top and dress so that added up to four pieces. Admittedly, I came home with more but it was Senior Discount Day!

In the end, I choose the blue lace top and multi printed chiffon dress for July’s Link-up post. That left me with an extra dress and shirt that I needed to figure out what to do with. The black shirt may eventually get donated back to Goodwill but the dress kept talking to me. I knew I would never wear it by itself but really liked the fabric. Its splatter print has every color from the rainbow and reminds me of a flower garden gone wild.

Taking a cue from Michelle, my oldest daughter, who has a talent for restyling thrifty finds, I decided to try my hand at it. When all things were said and done, this really turned out to be a 100% deconstruct and reconstruct project.

Making Decisions

The front and back of this maxi were just too low for me which is why I  brought home an extra shirt to wear over it. Serious action was required!

I took my big scissors and hacked away! The bodice was pretty much toast. I could use a little of it, but not much. I kept the black skirt lining and the tie in the back. I was excited about reusing the 98″ back tie.

My idea was to utilize the fabric in the skirt. I went with a kimono inspired idea and decided to play it by ear and forgo any pattern. Basically, this garment is one large rectangle in back and two narrower ones in the front. I didn’t shape the front and just let the fabric fall back into sort of a collar.

To add a little more shape, I added a casing at the waist, (used some of the black lining), inserted elastic and cut that back tie in half and used it as front ties. Feeling that side slits would lighten the piece and make it more versatile (and not look like a big bag), I left 17” side slit . For me, this one step saved the piece.

I’m not sure how I would term  what I came up with. You could say it was an unstructured vest or a sleeveless duster. Whatever, it is, its not in the trend-sphere and I will probably keep it around a very long time and hope I wear it some.

The Styling

For the first look, I went casual with flats, a bright cuff and one of my favorite bags, the purple Kampala by 2 Rivers. The waist ties were easy to work out of the way and I could add one of my wide belts. This particular one I found at Salvation Army.

This piece could be a seasonal transition piece. For warmer weather, I will wear it with shorter leggings and a sleeveless shell (this one from Goodwill).

But when the weather gets a bit cooler, I will trade out the sleeveless top for my ¾ sleeve black Chi Chi layering shell. The shorter leggings will be replaced with full-length heavier leggings.

I thought it would be fun to dress it up a bit and added black patent heels (one of a few pairs of shoes I’ve found at Goodwill) and my black Alfani (pre-loved from eBay)clutch. With the silver jewelry I went with, none of my belts seem to look right so now you can see the ties.

The Nitty Gritty of Sewing

Seeing it on my dress form I got pretty upset. It looked like this shapeless sack.  I decided that the answer was for the waist to come in. With that decision, I added casing around the waste in inserted 3/8″ elastic.

My sewing teacher, my Mom, always told me that the inside of a garment was just as important as the outside. So, here’s an inside view. Being chiffon, I used French seams. In my opinion, chiffon should either have french seams or encased seams.

Just hanging around. I love this fabric against a sea of nature’s greenery.

The Inspiration

I tried to make this zero waste. The garment styles that influenced me were the Kimono and its shorter version, the Haori.  These two garments are 100% no waste (mine almost was).

That wraps up my first adventure with up-cycling. I don’t even know if this is true up-cycling because the new garment looks nothing like the old. This probably should be termed a fabric salvage mission. It was a good problem solving project but took longer than I expected. Have I worn it out and about? No I haven’t (I just finished it yesterday) and that will be the test. Have any of you had the urge to cut something up and refashion it? I don’t know if I will ever do it again, but glad I finally tried it.

And who knows,  I may take those bodice scraps out of my wastepaper basket and try to make Cinderella a new top, then I would have a zero waste project!

Finding the Trends on the Second Hand Market

On YouTube, I follow Signe Hansen’s Use Less. Signe is Danish and has a very refined and sleek take on style. As her v-blog suggests, she gets maximum style with minimum wardrobe. Signe believes in sourcing a portion of her wardrobe from the second hand market. This past Sunday she came out with a video of Fall trends and where to find them at second hand platforms. I was amused that she likes Vestiaire because I downloaded their app on my iPhone last Spring and was falling in love with all kinds of things when, slowly, it dawned on me this was European and I would be paying a hefty shipping fee. So, I will just have to stick to The RealReal. Here’s a link to Signe’s video on what she is hunting for as far as the Fall trends on a few of her favorite second hand online shops

Use Less’s Fall Trend Video

Now to the 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup. For inspiration, I’m kicking it off with a collage of the wonderful slow fashion stylists that linked up last month. Our little community is growing. This month eleven bloggers linked up at least once, sometimes more that once. I now give you…

Last Months Slow Fashion Stylists from the 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup

To celebrate I have made a collage of the lovely ladies (no guys, but you are welcome to participate). There were 17 linkups, of which eleven participants documented that they were styling with at least one item purchased second hand.

Starting from the top left and moving clockwise, here are this month’s featured slow fashion stylists. Please go and check out these ladies. I’ve linked their blogs and Instagram accounts.

• Anna of Mutton Years Style and I – her IG is anna_muttonyears
• Charlotte of http://www.jtouchofstyle.com – her IG is jtouchofstyle/
• Jodie of http://www.jtouchofstyle.com – her IG is jtouchofstyle/
• Jacqui of Mummabstylish-her IG is mummabstylish
• Maggie of Thriftshop Fashionistablog – her IG is thriftshopfashionista/
• Michelle-her IG is michelle_dvm99
• Penny of Frugal Fashion Shopper -her IG is frugalfashionshopper/
• Trina of Tipey Heelz-her IG is tipseyheelzblogger
• Jess of Elegantly Dressed and Stylish-her IG is elegantlydressedandstylish
• Nicole of High Lattitude Style – her IG is highlatitudestyle/
• Mary of The Pouting Pensioner -her IG is thepountingpensioner

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the linkup. To be in the collage, the link title or in the blog, you have to mention what was pre-loved, even if it’s a daughter’s piece of ribbon that was transformed into a choker. I hope to see you at the link-up tomorrow!

The link up button is now on every post that I publish to make it easy for you to link up.

 

That wraps it up for this week. Thank you for stopping by. I’ll have another blog bit next week. You are certainly welcome to leave a comment or two or three. I love to hear from you.

I link up with some great blogs every week. To see who they are go HERE.

Husband Michael gets credit for the photos of me and does a bit of editing from time to time.

Again, thanks for stopping by. Take care……..

Time for my usual link-up blurb!

It’s time for the August 2nd Loved 1st Friday Linkup which stays open until September 30th.

Any post on a blog, Instagram, Facebook or the like can linkup to this style celebration. If you can copy and paste the URL in the Linky box, you are good to go!

One item is quite OK—a hat, skirt, pants, shoes, purse, or a piece of jewelry.  That item (or items) can be from a thrift shop, eBay, consignment shop, vintage boutique, one of the online consignment shops such as RealReal–or even something a friend gave you because they didn’t want it anymore.

When you do post, I would appreciate a description about your 2nd Loved item (or items), what type of shop you found it and what drew you to it. Tell as much or as little as you want. To be featured in my collage, which I will put on Instagram along with your links, you have to say what item is second loved. That is a “have to”.

If you have never participated in a linkup before, no fear. Go to Linkup 101 guide that is found on my 2^nd Loved 1^st Friday linkup page (also found at the top in the tab section).

Just click the frog below to link up and join the fun!

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