Remake: Holiday Plaid

Happy post-Christmas/pre-New Year Monday!!  I hope everyone is enjoying some time off, some time with friends and family, or perhaps some time away!  I was able to spend Christmas (and a little time offline) with my family in the south and now am ready to ring in 2014 with a bang back at home! This was one of the pieces that I brought with me to NC...

Holiday perfection??  It felt apron-y, yet had a fitted waist and side zipper, so I'm leaning more towards a jumper of sorts?  I loved the print, but that waist...it just wouldn't zip up.

I thought this would be a fun project to attack from a "what to do when it's too small" question that many of you pose!!  Oh, and look at those ruffles!!

Time to make this holiday appropriate because I'm not quite sure if it would fly if I didn't have a white top on underneath.

I started out by cutting off the panel at the waist that just wouldn't button and zip shut.  I started trimming right below the seam until it was completely removed.

Look at the lovely excess that I'm left with!!  I must find something to use those ruffles with.

Next I pinned a new seam right below where I trimmed because I'm turning this into a new maxi skirt!

I sewed down the new waist seam and double stitched my zipper to create a new top stop - don't want that pull tab coming off!

After the waist was sewn, my new skirt was ready to wear!

By removing just a few inches, this piece went from no way to hol-i-day!!

I paired the skirt with a reddish studded blouse, a gold tweed Trina Turk jacket, a vintage clutch, and a swap score - a pair of heels with bows on them.

It was super festive and just the thing to celebrate Christmas Eve in.

I matched the tree!

Our Christmas Eve tradition involves a church visit and then a Chinese food feast with my immediate family...

...while Christmas day is all about celebrating (and eating tons of turkey) with the entire fam!  My dad loved his Santa bag the most...

...while my grandma was quite thrilled with the mini bottles of wine in her stocking.

Twas such a fantastic holiday with everyone and always a trip that goes by so quickly...  What are some of your traditions?  Anything that you wait all year to do?  Would love to hear what you guys had up your sleeve this year!!

Julia's NDAD Creation: Holiday Edition

How many of you out there have holiday attire that needs a little facelift?  The lovely Julia submitted a piece that turned out SO well and her project is going to give you a bit of inspiration on tweaking those pieces.  Check it out... I got crafty last night with a Coldwater Creek vest I found in a thrift shop and loved...

...but ultimately would never wear.

Snowflake vest!! What will Julia craft this into??

I cut out the lovely snowflake motif for the front...

...and used the vest's zipper for the back...

...of what would become a cozy holiday pillow! 

It sits so pretty on Julia's couch!!

Thanks for all your inspirational remakes of 2013. Happy Holidays and may 2014 bring you joy and opportunity!

Thank you so much for submitting your piece, Julia!!  I absolutely love how the pillow turned out.  From a vest that you'd never actually wear to a pillow that you'd show the world, you rocked this remake!  It's so lovely for winter - I hope that you keep it out past the new year!!  Cheers to 2014, J! xo

My Mother's Attic: December

The lovely Ashley has been contributing for the past year and her final post has arrived! So sad to see her go (she's not gone forever...she'll be back with some special posts now and again) but so grateful to have had a lovely new voice here at NDAD. All the pieces she's created and worn directly from her mother's and grandmother's closets have made me swoon and today's are no different. Ash, you're a gem. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us. xo My final My Mother's Attic of the year! Twelve posts! Where on earth did the time go? I cannot thank you all enough for welcoming me into this lovely, supportive community. I learned so much this year. It was really fun to go back and review the year of looks and be reminded of just how far I've come. My goal was to learn the basics of sewing, and thanks to Marisa and this column, I no longer fear my sewing machine! Hoo-rah!

This final post was a fun way for me to pull together the essence of this project and show off the skills I've acquired. My mother grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia in the 50s. My grandmother, a woman of her era, would purchase classic Indonesia batik fabrics and then ship them back to the U.S. to have a seamstress turn them into dresses in the latest American styles. I am so very lucky that my mother held on to two of these pieces, and they are in AMAZING condition (and fit me. Bonus!).

The batik fabric is so unique and special, and both dresses have a timeless essence. I love that I can so easily wear them today.

I had the joy of discovering a stash of leftover batik fabric from my mother's childhood in Indonesia. It had been sitting in a pile in my "craft" closet for years. I knew I wanted to create a quilt out of the material for my mother, but had no idea where to begin. Thanks to this year of regularly working with my sewing machine (and tackling a small baby quilt project this summer), I felt I could finally handle the project.

I used the scrap fabric to piece together a lap quilt. I lined the back with a marbled, navy flannel. It's super cozy, and I love love love that it incorporates that leftover fabric into a piece that my mother can truly use and enjoy.

During a super snowy day this December, James and I ventured outside to shoot both the quilt and dresses together. I styled the looks using a vintage fur coat of my great-grandmother's (mother to the batik dress owner :))

(I KNOW the fur is going to upset some people, and I hear you! But this piece dates back to the early 1900s. There is no way I could ever part with it. And on a really cold day, it sure is warm).

The longer dress has tons of fabric and can be an amazing formal ensemble. In fact, I wore it to my engagement party back in 2007 when James and I were first engaged. The short shift dress I wear to work and the style feels very Jackie O.

The scarf I'm wearing is a classic fisherman's style scarf hand knit by my great-grandmother for my mother when she lived in Paris in the 70s.

These images bring me so much joy as they showcase the generations of women that have influenced by style, while also showing the skills I've acquired this year thanks to being a part of the New Dress A Day community. Thank you for letting me share these stories with all of you. Happy happy happiest New Year to all!

To keep up with Ash online, find her over at Blog a la Cart and here on Twitter, Instagram, & FB!