fitzfabulous

Remember this mess of a fit handed down from a cousin?

Boxy cut is too big in all the wrong places, stretchy fabric catches on tiny front hooks, red square sequins a bit much for most uses.

But it’s precisely those red square sequins that made this an irresistable keeper.

Enter Dolly Parton concert for inspiration. Dolly has no fear. She grew up dirt poor. She married at 20 and stuck it out. She takes all kinds of risks. She laughs it off when people are rude and tacky to her. And she loves to show off a bosom.

So take her moxie to heart, and give a big chop of something you know fits really awfully a try. Here’s how I did it (and it was a long time in the making):

1. REMOVE SLEEVES. I sliced through the shoulder seams to remove the sleeves whole. I also cut off the tiny hooks and eyes meant to hold the front closed because they caught on the fabric.

2. PULL IN SIDES. Fit to your body, pin and stitch well. What were boxy shoulders now are effortless cap sleeves.

3. CUT OUT A NECK. The front used to close all the way up - I wanted a loose V-shape, so I had to cut off the excess fabric from the original neck. Also meant pulling off, one by one, the sequins that line the edge.

4. FINISH NECK. Hem the neck by hand or with a binding. I sewed in grosgrain ribbon with the machine, then hand hemmed it over.

5. CLOSE IT UP. Tried a bunch of things to make this a top rather than a cardigan. Wrap-style with ribbon ties looked silly. Pinned the sleeves like a band to the bottom to hold the wrap felt too bulky. Finally - since I knew I wanted the sequins to stretch out into a design - I sewed two big snaps on the bottom corners.

The first set was sewn to the inside and a corner,

the other to the outside.

6. PULL OUT THE BOOTS AND GO. I’ll add a tiny ruffled cami top underneath, and a fitted denim skirt on bottom before going out in public.

and back

She’s coming this week and I’m all set.

View cinematic oeuvre (9 to 5, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk). Check.

Check out old interviews on the Tube. Watch new video with Amy Sedaris, old musical specials on DVD. Check.

Learn words to Hard Candy Christmas, To Daddy, Tennessee Mountain Home. Check.

And now my bosom is ready to shine! I finished my fabulous TOP the better to sparkle along with the lady Dolly.

Lucky my Mister was stuck at work covering the Indiana primary until very late this eve, freeing me up to think about how to get this refashioned bugger to work.

If you recall, I started out with a giant boxy stretchy red cardigan jacket, handed down from a cousin. And I ended up with the Hottest Little Dolly Top in Chicago.

As always, there’s a How to… right here.

Disgusting. I’m so sick of all this cashing in on what should be simplification.

The Phila Inquirer had a bit about the local design school’s trashion show — clothes from shower curtains and magazine pages — the same weekend the silly NYT ran some ridiculous magazine blurb about eco fashion. Now I’m getting better about considering the total cost of food and clothing nowadays, but that doesn’t mean unbleached “green” cotton should cost thousands of dollars. How insulting!

Anybody besides me sick to death of the commercialization and mass marketing of projects like this one we’re all in?

On that note, tomorrow, I renew a pledge:

“I still pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself for 6 more months. I pledge that I shall create and craft items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium.”

I first pledged the Wardrobe Refashion mantra Aug. 1, 2007, hoping to get through the Christmas season without buying new crap. Now it’s just a way of life that’s so second nature. I spend a lot of time thinking about crafting, and really, I should be using more of that time to exercise. But I love looking like noone else around, I love that I spend time making my clothes fit my body not the other way around and I love thumbing my nose at mass produced crap. I also love seeing the creative potential in everything around me.

Life is good.

This Minna #6007 (shortened to a top) is an ancient refashion. It’s my first completion of a BurdaStyle pattern, and I like it a whole lot. I cut it short, and changed the neck trim to a lined fabric facing.

To cut the dress into a top, I pretty much used the double lines marked on the pattern around the hipline for lengthening or shortening. And instead of using a fancy trim to finish the neck, I used the cutting guide to make bias strips. The print is already so fabulous it doesn’t need any sparkly help.

I had bought a fluorescent print maxidress at the Salvy during my later high school years. Think 1993. I wanted to chop off the skirt and the top of a pair of thrifted overalls and make a kind dress the kids were wearing then (I promise!). Chopped the overalls, chopped the dress, got caught up in something else, and then realized what a ridiculous trend it was. My sister (10 years my junior) then raided my sewing stash and pilfered a strip of the skirt. I remember throwing a fit, but not what she made, it was that long ago.

It took some doing, but I managed to cut out the front and back so the pattern goes the same way, and the back pieces nearly match. Only enough fabric remained for one set of bias strips, so I cut another set to line the neck piece out of plain black synthetic fabric. Sewed the fabric pieces together to form a V, ditto for lining, sewed them together along the top, right sides together. Then I popped in a movie to handsew the bottom side of the lining invisibly.

When I make another Minna - and I certainly will - I’ll gather the front and back tighter to leave more room in the armholes. I’ll also copy the neckline since I liked the smooth, neat finish inside. (Will post the steps on BurdaStyle - this time was too trial-and-error to photograph.)

Next on the list: Ellinor #8516, using brown clearance cotton from a Joann sale, and brown sparkly eyelet from the Hobby Lobby clearance wall. Not too late, I think, to Sew Along With Nikkishell on the BurdaStyle site.

The thing I like about this Minna pattern from Burdastyle is that it gives a girl a little shape.

Can’t stand the preggers-chic of all the babydoll tops and big blousy things that just make me look like a whale. I have a bosom and hips, so once my waist is lost, so goes my self-esteem the way of the blob.

I have this chunk of fabric (feels like the stuff of a real Hawaiian shirt) from an ancient high school shopping trip to the Roxborough Salvy. Think 1993.

I bought the maxidress it was part of wanting to chop off the skirt and the bib of a pair of thrifted overalls and make a kind dress the kids were wearing then (I promise!). Chopped the overalls, chopped the dress, got caught up in something else, and then realized what a ridiculous trend it was. My sister (10 years my junior) then raided my sewing stash and pilfered a strip of the skirt. I remember throwing a fit, but not what she made, it was that long ago.

Finally, I pulled out the remnant with Minna in mind. Ignored the directions to use something fancy on the neck, since the print is already so… fabulous.

The mockup using Freecycled fabric seemed to work. The size I cut fits me. Style works, too. No bulges.

I’m ready to take the BurdaStyle plunge.

Thanks to a lovely lady on Chicago Freecycle I’ll call L (since I didn’t ask permission to quote her) who gave me a giant bag of fabric pieces her photographer-husband once used as drapes. When she found out I did Wardrobe Refashion, she threw in a few shirts and a vest.

I don’t wear a lot of pastels, so this stash will work so perfectly for mockups. I’ve been wanting to copy this Kangol Fur-gora hat using a black angora sweater that I wrecked in the wash and an ancient hat pattern.

And I have a hoodie pattern I want to use with menswear fabric so it’ll go to work with me. And then there’s the Minna dress from BurdaStyle I’m not sure will work on my body.

And. And. And.

Sweet!

Refashioners, forgive me.

Shopped this weekend in Philadelphia with my best shopping buddy, my sister. On her cue, we went to Gaffney’s Fabrics in Germantown Friday to get her a few yards of cotton prints. The little girl’s ready to learn to sew, and I thought the Anda dress on BurdaStyle would be a simple, rewarding way to get started. I brought her a printout of the Minna dress, too. We’re both going to give that one a try by cutting it down into a tunic top.

To my surprise, she picked giant, modern floral prints. Giant white daisies on kelly green cotton; blue and yellow on a chocolate blend; white loops on a rich, red polished cotton that has a solid red border on one end. I bought myself some red and brown lightweight for Minna tops, a silver threaded black knit for some kind of basic dress and as much of this black, gray and purple jersey as they had:

Right - the forgiveness. We also went to Daffy’s Saturday after a lady date to the opera together. I bought two pairs of jeans, brand new and right off the retail rack. They’re beautifully dark, they fit like a glove and they were on sale. Plus, Daffy’s is different from TJ Maxx or Marshalls in that its overstock is mostly European, so the jeans were made in Turkey and Italy. I felt good about not buying more cheap Chinese crap, and then I felt good that I had to really talk myself into buying these staples. And then I congratulated myself on putting back a pair of dark denim pants for the sole reason that they looked like something (unlike jeans) I could actually make.

I also considered a linen blouse with a lovely ruffle detail, (which shouldn’t be too hard to copy) but it didn’t fit. All the best, since I blew my Get out of Jail on the jeans.

The Wardrobe Refashion really has become a way of life for me. Buying new just isn’t exciting. Buying quality clothes and fabrics I can tailor to my own body are both very exciting. Watching my sister step into this world is so great, too.