Project Runway Season 8 Episode 2 - Marie Claire Challenge

The second challenge of this season's PR was to create a piece which best represents the Marie Claire woman. It was way too hot and I did not want to leave the flat, so I decided to do another refashion. The first thing I chose was this blue dress from H&M Moscow, which I love but is a knit and so calls unneccessary attention to my tumtum and, ironically, doesn't stretch enough for my bust:

I love the colour, though, and the tubing-combined-with-drawstring tie:

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, though, so I looked through the rest of my stash of "Things I like but never wear" and found this dress from New Look in Cardiff:

It's a bit short and tight at the bust but the print is so adorable! I loved the pockets, too, but we'll talk more about them later. I decided to make an elasticated bodice out of the New Look dress and make a skirt with a ruffle out of the blue.

First things first, I cut the bodice from the skirt of the New Look dress:

Then I removed the pockets (which I briefly considered transferring to the blue skirt, but then thought that might be too much)...

... then used my new sewing gage to measure how much to turn over for the elastic casing at the top.

Then I fed the elastic through and left the bodice alone for a little while.

I cut the bodice off of the blue dress, decided how long I wanted the skirt to be and cut off the remaining bits to make the ruffle. I zigzag stitched the bottom of the ruffle and made a gathering stitch along the top:

And then I gathered and stitched it to the base of the dress.

Then I pinned the bodice bit to the top of the skirt...

...and stitched them together.

Looking good! I then pinned the casing for the drawstring to the back of the dress...

...and stitched it on.

I threaded the drawstring through the casing and TADA a new dress!

I still have the bodice from the blue dress so I'm thinking about making it into a shrug or something wear over this (as a friend said, that would take it from day to night). I'm very pleased with this little number.

Project Runway Season 8 Episode 1 - Refashioning Challenge

So the first challenge of this season's PR was to take something that another contestant had packed and refashion it into something new. Ideal! I'm obsessed with refashioning. At first I wasn't sure how to get something from someone else, but then I remembered that Tasha had brought over loads of old things for me to use, so I put the 3 remaining pieces in a bag, shook it up, and randomly drew one of them. I picked this red dress from Warehouse:

I almost never wear or work with red, so I was at a loss for a little while. Luckily, though, I've been obsessing about peplums lately and so I decided to use the fabric to make a peplum for a cardigan I already have.

I love this purple cardigan; I bought it in H&M in Paris and it's been a go-to of mine since then. I was very excited about the dark purple + red combination as well. I also decided to add a little red bow near the collar to try to bring the red in more.

I cut the bottom of the dress off in one long strip, then eye-balled (I hate measuring) how much I'd want to have gathered for the peplum. I didn't want too much volume, just enough for a slight flounce, so I cut off some of the excess to use as the collar bow:

Then I did what I'm best at: gathering. I gathered the long strip til it matched up with the bottom of the cardigan and then stitched it on as though it were a ruffle. Then I made a small, boxy bow and stitched it on near the collar and voila! New cardigan made from someone's clothing.

I'm very very happy with it. Here are some pictures of me in it:

It's unfortunately way too hot for me to wear it, but I'm superexcited about the future. Also, I think I might make a pencil skirt to go with it out of a similar red fabric. Sassy!

The Passport Cover and The Pencil Dress

It's been an inordinately long amount of time since I last posted; I've been a bit busy. Not so busy as to not be able to sew, but, you know.

A couple of weeks ago I whipped together a couple of things; my goal right now is to play along with Project Runway so I've made two things so far (going to make the third today). I'll just quickly update you on the two I finished before PR started.

First, I made a cover for my passport. I started with this dress I bought a few years ago from M&S which (1) is too short and (2) doesn't provide enough cover over the bust. I love the fabric, though, and thought it would make an adorable passport cover.

I cut it up and used some of the ribbon I had left over from the ribbon rosette to make the flaps and a bow-tie closure; here's the final result!

It's a bit uneven because my cutting skills are still subpar but, whatever. I love it.

I also made an elasticated tube dress from some hilarious coloured pencil fabric I found at Season.

It ended up a bit short and the fabric has no stretch whatsoever, but I like it. It's all wrinkly because I took this picture after wearing it (foolish). I think it's superfun.