Thursday Remake

So I decided that today is my Purple Rain/Raspberry Beret dress, because of the fab color palette.

Two of my fave shades together, in a paisley print, however the waist is off, wrists of the sleeves worn out, and length is just not quite right.

I really like this piece and am going to Prince-ify it even more, you know by rocking it out like it's 1999.  OK, sorry for all the Prince references.  Off to dress tweaking!

I began with a little shortening.  I cut off about five inches...

...and then went to work on the sleeves!  I kept the sleeves shape intact and decided to just work on the elastic at the wrists.  I undid a seam, and checked out the elastic inside (which wasn't worn out - just too long) and pulled out about two and a half inches and pinned it in place to stitch and ultimately shorten.

I worked on the body of the piece next.  There was just a little too much torso room and the waist needed to be cinched a bit, so I pinned the area that needed to be taken in...

...and got to work!!  The body got sewed...

...and so did that elastic!

I stitched back up the seam at the wrist that I opened earlier to totally complete the dress!

It's not back to normal Southern California temperatures yet, (I'm not going to lie - I was a bit chilly shooting these) but it's getting there!!  I paired my dress with a vintage black elastic belt, a pair of DKNY tights (a total Marshalls find), heeled brogues (I got these puppies from Delia's a few years ago - yep, somehow those catalogues plague my mail and I ALWAYS get sucked in), and a vintage purple sweater!

The sleeves are tightened, hurray!!

It's an easy wintery look, because of the dark purple and the dark tights...

...but will totally work in spring, going sans tights and wearing sandals.  Perhaps we'll take this a bit shorter too when it really starts warming up!

Happy Thursday, friends!!

Wednesday Remake!

Today's post features another one of the accessories that I crafted for Marie Osmond's show!  I wanted to give y'all a little sneak peek. 1.  Start with a clutch-esque purse.

This one that I used looked like it was an actual over the shoulder type bag, per the claspy, square, hardware pieces on each side, but it was perfect for the easy upgrade that's to come.  Oh, and side note, the bag can be as ugly as possible.

2.  Find an awesome printed fabric.

I went with a black and white giraffe-esque print.  I love pops of animal print, so this is going to be totally perfect as the new purse exterior!!

3.  Trim a pattern.

I laid my purse on top of the fabric and trimmed out a rectangle around it...

...and then started wrapping the bag like a present, hot gluing the fabric down to the exterior.  Yes, HOT GLUE!!  The beauty of this project is that you can literally use the ugliest purse in your collection that you haven't tossed yet, or a bag that has found a way to a bin of discounted duds at the thrift store.

4.  Hot glue yo bag.

I began gluing at the edge of the purse flap and then brought the material all the way around the bag, dabbing the edges, folding the sides in and gluing.

5.  Make a bow or another bit of flair to add to the front.

After fabricking (*my new word that will never make it into the Oxford Dictionary) my bag, I made a bow out of red satin ribbon and affixed to the front.  My bow was a little figure 8 (I glued the center down to form that shape) that I wrapped a square of ribbon around to give it a true bow look.

6.  Rock your purse!!

I loved how the bag turned out!!  It's really the perfect piece to jazz up a super basic outfit or to wear as a bold statement with a cocktail dress!

You will see me toting this shortly...

Remake Tuesday!

I am a velvet girl.  I LURVE velvet.  Even this dress...

It felt super Romeo & Juliet to me...

...except it was completely the wrong size.  I loved the color and the ruching at the neck, however the rest of it was lacking.  It's time to make this totally Juliet-worthy!!

The size was the main issue, so I spent time measuring and pinning down the areas that needed to be stitched!

I got the sleeves and the arms...

...and pinned down the body as well before stitching everything in place.

Once the seams were stitched, I trimmed off the excess material.

The length was a bit off as well, and just a tad too long, so I cut off about six inches from the hem to shorten it up.

Paired with a jacket, thigh high socks, boots, a scarf, and a newsboy cap, I was finally ready for my day!!

So small sidenote...Los Angeles has been battling bitter temperatures for traditional Southern California temps.  Yeah, we hit the 40s which is really nothing for the East Coast, but for us So Cal-ers, we're going a little bananas.

Even Jimmy Kimmel brought mention to it.  (PS, those are our real newscasters...it's ridiculous, but totally legit!!)

I'm not going to say that I didn't feel just a little bit like Oliver Twist...

...and I'm also not going to say that my NY, born and bred blood, hasn't thinned at all since being in LA, because it totally has!!  I'm cold!!  My lovely apartment with lacking heat makes me feel like I'm in Rent.  "Will You Light My Candle?" is kind of true for me at the moment, but I'll be fine.

I got my latte, my multiple layers, and an electric blanket to keep this girl running!!