White Pants Revamp with Crystal Light Liquid (...& a Visa Gift Card Giveaway!)

Today's remake is a fun one: I partnered up with Crystal Light Liquid to use their new flavors to inspire a brand new outfit!  Before we get into the nitty gritty, let's take a look at the before shot.

I started off with a pair of white trousers that had been gathering dust at the bottom of my pants stack for years.  They had a few little spots on the front...

...and somehow maintained a life, albeit a less than thrilling one, in my wardrobe.  Today, these pants are getting a face, er, pants-lift inspired by three of my favorite Crystal Light Liquid flavors--Strawberry Lemonade, Peach Bellini, and Blueberry Raspberry.

After seeing how gorgeous these drinks looked after combining the liquid drops to my glasses of water...

...I just had to drink wear them! These pants needed a vibrancy overhaul, so I found the appropriate matching shades of RIT dye in Petal Pink, Scarlet, and Purple to begin the transformation.

Nothing like adding a little bit of color to a slightly flavor-deficient garment to really make it fun and exciting.  I was now ready to begin on the craft-cation from Spot City to Color Capitol!

I filled three spritz bottles with a few teaspoons of dye and warm water, and began to spray my pants all over.

I started with the lightest shade first (pink) before moving onto to the darker shades (scarlet and purple) after.

After all the dye was sprayed, I ran the pants under warm water to blend the colors and create more of a watercolor-y vibe.

I've seen tons of leggings and skinny jeans with a similar bold pop of color pattern, so I wanted to take these one step further and create something similar, turning them into tapered pants.  I pinned them where I wanted to take them in and then stitched them in place.

From spotted trousers to fun, summery, 90s throwback jeans that I will be rocking all summer!

Taking a bit of inspiration from Crystal Light Liquid...

...I turned my lackluster trousers into something vibrant and full of life!

I heart my new pants!

J'aime mon pantalon!

What's something you take inspiration from when you're prepping for summer OR zhuzhing up outfits OR switching out the boxes of sweaters for the tank tops under your bed?  Tell me in the comment section below, and you'll be entered for the chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!  A lucky NDAD reader will be winning some summer bucks!

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Crystal Light Liquid via BlogHer. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Crystal Light Liquid.

Rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods: a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post. b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: ""#SweepstakesEntry""; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post". c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post. d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.  Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.  You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.  This sweepstakes runs from 6/5 - 6/30.  Be sure to visit the Crystal Light page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Muumuu Monday!

It was finally time to attack that muumuu you guys saw a few months ago...

I wonder who's wardrobe this came from??

Rosie on Facebook called it my "bonsai tree number" which I was absolutely obsessed with, so that became my new name for it.  (Thank you Rosie!!)  It was finally time to make it work.

I knew exactly what I was going to do once I turned it around...

The light bulb went off and I was ready to start pruning my bonsai tree!

I began with my seam ripper and started to cut the threads holding my sleeves in place!

Using the band at the neck as my guide, I got one sleeve off...

...and then the other!  I loved the round shape that the top panel made and wanted that to be my new collar/cap-sleeve, duo of excellence!

(I also ended up using my seam ripper to take off about a 1/4" worth of stitches from each side of the front material attached to the panel.  I did this to make the neck panel more pronounced against my skin once it gets put on.)

I pinned the raw edges under at the armholes to prep for sewing and then got to my length next.  I cut off about a foot of the length and then cut thinner strips of fabric from my remnants.

I pulled the polyester fabric strips to form these string-like pieces...

...and then braided them together to make a belt for my new dress.

I stitched up my edges...

...and added my braided belt and some heels, creating a dress totally suitable for an afternoon shindig!!

I just love how the neck turned out!

So I actually didn't end up wearing this to an afternoon shindig (however if I had one to attend this weekend, I most definitely would have) but did wear it to a birthday gathering for one of my favorite (and funniest) pals.

I took the daytime "heels and below the knee" look and switched it up a bit to make it work for evening.  I added ankle boots, a denim jacket, and untucked some extra material from the belted waist to shorten the dress naturally.

It was a karaoke/dance party and I totally felt a little country-ish in my ensemble.

If only I brought a hat and could belt out some Shania, then I'd totally channel my inner cowgirl in this bonsai dress!!

Hope everyone had a most lovely weekend!  Happy Monday, friends!

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Jennifer's NDAD Creation

I've been in tie dye mode as of late...

...working a few fun events with Sonya Nimri, Traci Bautista, and I Love To Create showing kids (and adults!) the wonders of tie dye!

I'm obsessed with this tote...

So being in my tie dye mode and seeing what Jennifer did with her husby's old t-shirts, I just had to post!  Check her project out...

This summer my hubby was about to get rid of a bunch of old white t-shirts that he wears under his work shirts.  My husband thought it was about time since some of those shirts were as old as my 8 year old!  Yikes!  But being the sentimental closet hoarder that I am, I salvaged those gross-armpit-stained-overly-stretched-out-necked shirts!

I made tie-dyed summer dresses! 

Let's see how Jennifer's summer dresses come out!

The dress is made from 2 shirts. (My hubby wears an XL shirt and I wear a medium-ish size dress). The body of the dress is made out of the body of the shirt.  The bust is made from the sleeves, plus a sleeve from the second shirt.  It took 3 sleeves because I wanted to cut out the armpit parts (Eww, I know!).  The straps came from the second shirt. 

Then to kick it up a notch, I tie dyed it!  I folded the dress up like an accordion, rubber-banded it together and then folded the bound up dress again accordion style. 

I loved it so much, that I made another dress!  I tie dyed the t-shirts first this time, then made it into a dress.  That made the colors more saturated, but harder to match up the patterns on the fabric. 

I hope you like them!  Thank you so much for all inspiration!  Never stop creating!

Jennifer!!  Thank you so much for sharing your awesome dresses - they really are perfect for the summer.  Isn't dyeing so addicting?!  I'll have a few more dyed pieces coming up soon...get out those old white tees!!