Kimberly's NDAD Creation

We're in the thick of summer and all the warm weather recreations that are getting sent in are making me very happy!!  I want to have a little sew afternoon with you guys to create new pieces to wear in this glorious warm weather!!  We might have to get on a workshop train to make this happen :)  Check out Kimberly's amazing piece...

Hi Marisa!   I love following your blog--you are a fabulous inspiration.  I've been remaking clothes I find at the thrift store for a couple of years, but I had to share with you this dress I wore to a friend's wedding.  I work as a corporate flight attendant and as an instructor, I get to interact with all the flight attendants at my company. I was telling a group of flight attendants in my class about my sewing hobby and a couple of weeks later a lovely woman and friend sent me a beautiful silk dress to redesign.  I call my creations "alterKTions" because I often go by my initials (kT).

I loved the beautiful fabric and I couldn't wait to wear this to my friend's wedding in Austin, TX. 

The dress was a little bit too big, and very 80's chic, but I saw some promise in the fabric and the beautiful opalescent buttons!  I hiked the waistline up to my chest and then decided that I would use the button placket to make straps.  I cut off the top from the waist up, leaving the button plackets and I finished the seams, sewed the plackets criss-cross in back, and used the leftover fabric to make puffy, fabric flowers to cover the straps in the back.  The dress simply buttons up the front!

I do believe I was ahead of the curve on the whole "mullet dress" fashion trend.  The dress naturally fell longer in the back than the front.  It was perfectly flowing and swingy on the dance floor, too.  I threw on a great $3 metal vintage belt (Thank you St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store!) and the look was complete! 

The whole project took me about 1 day and I was so pleased with the results. Folks at the wedding kept asking me where I bought the dress and I was so tickled to be able to say I made it.  When the friend who sent me the dress saw me wearing the final product, she almost cried she loved it so much!  It gave me great joy to see the look on her face and made her happy that the beautiful fabric found some new life.  This dress is definitely my "go-to" for spring and summer fancy dress-ups!

UPDATE!! Here are back shots of Kimberly's dress...

And an ECU...

I LOVE this dress, Kimberly!  The friend who sent this your way has had her mind blown, period, end of story.  The dress print is so fabulous and so perfect for summer that I can only imagine that you'll be in this for each and every summer soiree!!  Bring on more compliments!!

Friday Giveaway - Rhinestoned Jewelry

How was everyone's week, post-holiday??  Mine was busier than expected and the work will continue on into the weekend, however it'll be nice to sleep in just a bit! To close out the work week, I'm giving away two things I'm obsessed with...

...an ivory rhinestoned bangle and a pair of iridescent heart earrings.  This combo is one that I would wear each and every day.  Nothing like a little bit of glimmer to add to basic gold or silver bangles.

To enter, leave a comment below of one thing you'd like to accomplish this summer.  It's already almost mid-July and I MUST get through a list of to-do's before the summer slips away.  The one major project on my list is to paint and get in order the patio area at my casa - I have a dingy set of two iron chairs and a table that need some maje TLC.  I'm not allowed to get a mini-grill (one of those tabletop Weber ones) until it gets finished and I'm dreaming about having my own grill :)  I shall be getting started next week after a few deadlines get met!  A winner will get announced next week along with all of the winners of the other current giveaways, so make sure you're entered for everything!!  (Also, the Visa gift card winners were chosen by BlogHer and the emails have gone out - as soon as I get the ok on their end, I'll share the winner's names!!)

Have a most fantastic weekend, friends!! xo

Rachel & Tiffany's NDAD Donation

I got a box of goodies from my girls, Rachel and Tiffany and have a remake today that was one of the fab items that they sent me.  Hello leopard print!!

Here's what R/T shared with me:

We hope you enjoy these lovely pieces.  My friend Tiffany and I have been following your blog since you were featured in a Yahoo news article.  We started going to thrift shops, garage sales, and Goodwill.  We've made over several items but we always seem to forget to take pictures of the before.  These pieces all came from one of our thrift stores.  It employs and supports adults with disabilities and they often run $5 for a bagful, so these items were probably around $1 each.  Enjoy and we look forward to seeing what ideas you'll have for these beauties!  -Rachel and Tiffany

I LOVE the animal print, so I couldn't wait to get to work on this dress!

I was playing around with the dress and finally decided on turning this into a halter dress!  I began by cutting off the top portion of the dress, starting right below the arms.

Using the center seam as my guide, I folded each side of the front down at a 45 degree angle to the area below the arms where I cut.  Post trim, I pinned the edges under.

To keep this area in place, I stitched both sides in place on my machine.

To make the actual halter, I pinned the top area of the dress under leaving about a 3/4" seam allowance.  I need this space to feed my ribbon through that will hold the dress up.

I stitched the top portion in place as well as taking in the sides where the sleeves were trimmed off, just a smidge, to avoid any side boob action!

Once everything was stitched, I took some tan grosgrain ribbon that meshed with all the different browns in the dress...

...and pulled it through the seam I just sewed.

My dress was now ready to wear!!

I paired the dress with a vintage brown leather belt, a thrifted straw tote bag, and my flip flops!

This dress is perfect for the hot days we've been having!!

However, I could live in halter dresses all the time.  I love the exposed back, just for staying cool!!

I ended up wearing my dress for a gathering of some of my favorite people.  One of my BFFs hosted a little dinner party at my casa which was a little weird because while she was cooking in my kitch, I was working at my kitchen table.  I had to give my kitchen away for the night and I must say, it's kind of amazing letting someone else cook in your house.  I mean, she forced me to work while she was rocking out some homemade marinara sauce.

It was probably for the best...I've never made a sauce from scratch (what?!?!) and not sure that I'd nail it my first go.  She's Italian and grew up only having homemade sauce, so I think it's totally in her blood.  And not shocking at all, when we all sat down to eat, the sauce was the first thing to go.  I put more on my bread than I did on my pasta!  I totally felt like I was channeling my inner Carmela Soprano with my mix of leopard print and Italian food.

Thank you so much, Rachel & Tiffany for sending me this fab piece - I'll be getting to the rest of your garments soon!