Outfit Rewind: 5/7/10

The rewind piece for today… Original post date: 5/7/10  (Click here for full project steps and original post!)

The Before Look:

The After Look:

It's crazy that this piece was worn over three years ago, on Day 160 into my first year's project.  Two words: MIND. BLOWING.  I forgot about the shoes that I wore too...I loved those Steve Maddens.  (They had some suede-rippage-probs so I let them go.  RIP, rad Steve Madden heels.  You were awesome to my feet.)

For the second time around, I got snippy with it. (na na na na na na na, na na na na na na).

I started off by removing the sleeves.

It's too darn hot...

...to get away with these sleeves...

...so off they came!

I shortened the dress next and sewed all the rough edges.

Looking back at how I wore this the first time, I kept it super simple, however this go I'm going to give it a bit more flare.  And nothing says flair more than RHINESTONES!!

I took these stones and gave them a little makeover by painting them with assorted bottles of Wet n Wild nail polish.

Post-paint, here were the colors I was working with...

These stones are going to be crafted into a belt for the dress!!!!

I wanted to bring out the pinks and purples in the floral print, so I went with these shades of polish  I picked a rhinestone pattern and took a tan piece of grosgrain ribbon from my ribbon stash to be my belt's base and began to affix with E6000 glue.

With my new belt all dry...

It was time to get that dress on!!

I love this newer, summery version!

What do you guys think?  You like the first or second wear better?

I think the belt totally makes the outfit!

I wore a pair of Max Studio wedges along with a Trina Turk clutch to bring out more of the beige and neutral colors.  They pick up the grosgrain ribbon well too!

I had so much fun reworking this dress and love that this piece got two totally different makeovers.

It's a far cry from what the original piece looked like!

Because it was so hot out and I was getting down in my kitchen preparing my dish for cooking club, this dress assisted in the "no sweaty armpits for Marisa" operation.  I made my asparagus and balsamic tomatoes with goat cheese without sweating through any sleeves.

Any time I'm not sweating through garments is always awesome for me, woo!!  Even though I dream about humid weather (I know I'm crazy, especially for all those living in the humidity, however my skin LOVES the moisture and LA is so, very dry) today was a day that I'm thankful I didn't have to worry about it!  I don't think the lack sleeves would have saved me! Stay cool, friends! We can all listen to that Ella Fitzgerald clip from above together.

Kids Craft Monday with Jo-Ann's!

I had the most fun crafternoon with my favorite kiddos, A & O making super cool necklaces.  They're wearing the finished product in the shot below, however you can't see them because we got the giggles and Wrigley (the pup) got involved too.

Don't worry...there are a bunch of fab after shots at the bottom of the post!

This project and post is tied into the "Summer of Jo-Ann Cape Discovery" with craft mecca, Jo-Ann's.  They're on a mission to share and inspire crafting fun for families this summer and since I don't have any kids of my own at the moment, I borrowed my fave littles above from my best pals, A & P to get some kid-friendly, summer crafting on!

Because these guys are five, I wanted to find a project within Jo-Ann's catalog that we could tweak to make appropriate and doable for their age.  I found a fun felt floral necklace that I thought would do the trick!  Here's what the sample looked like:

I picked up a stash of supplies including felt, leather cording, suede cording, and some pony beads and met up with my wee pals.

Keep reading to see how our project turned out!

Because the flowers were a little difficult to make, I took the original idea and turned it into a felted charm necklace with Miss A choosing to make some hearts...

...and Mr. O choosing to make different sports balls.

We cut the shapes out of the felt and glued leather cord loops to the back so they'll be able to be threaded through the suede "chain".

We hung the charms and then added pony beads to the suede.  They made their own little patterns of beads which was awesome!

Once everything was threaded, we knotted the back of the necklaces and then showed them proudly!

How fab did these turn out??

It's a great activity where pretty much anything can be cut out of felt.  For O's necklace, we trimmed and hot glued lines on the basketball and football for some extra detail!

We had a little photo shoot after we crafted to show off what was made!  (And yes, I totally rocked my vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tee...I know my audience!!)

Such a fun project to do outside on the patio, inside when it's raining, or even on vacation!

I think this was a total success!  Special thanks to Jo-Ann's for providing the supplies - also, if you don't have the Jo-Ann's app on your phone or get their preferred customer newsletter yet, click over HERE to sign up.  There are always fab coupons available that you can use on your purchases - I live for my app!

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!!