The Blue Fish Dress

I never thought I would laugh so hard in my life at a dress. One can find funny hideous things in the second-hand store but... a fish? oh my God! A dress that make you this happy for $2 is definitely something you need in your closet.

I didn't quite understand what the designer was thinking when making this dress. This is too small and not so flattering for a plus size but enormous and shapeless for a petite. Even for somebody with the "standard" measures... it was just awkward.

I spent quite a while in the fitting room figuring out how to put this on me. The dress had too much hanging fabric... spandex to be exact, which made me wonder: who in his/her insane mind wants this much hanging spandex ? the point of this type of fabric is to be tight on you, show off curves or at least make you feel fresh and comfortable. If you want a dress hanging on you to fall nicely on your figure you use chiffon or crêpe or silk... not spandex!

Fashion Designers: this is why you need to actually know about fabrics and cuts!

And don't even make me start with the fins and the neckline... please don't!. The only good thing about this dress was the color, so I put myself to work as soon as I could.

The obvious first step was cutting off the fins and some length. Then adjusted the silhouette and finished the hem.

At this point I had a nice simple summer dress, with a fresher and better look. The only additional think I had to adjust was the neckline, it was to wide and open for my so I sewed some centimeters in each shoulder.

Tried on again and looked just fine. Just fine... just plain fine [sigh]

Let's add some drama please! And mr spandex... you're supposed to... expand, right? So I pull a pinch of fabric from the front, a little bit from the back and sewed together to the right side so I could do some ruffles.

Finished the ruffles with some nice gold studs. You know me, I love decorating my clothes.

And that was my fishy refashion tale!. I know I'm not a mermaid but at least, I kept my human shape with this dress.

The Silk Blouse

I was a lucky girl that day!!. I found this blouse in the second-hand store, but it was brand new. It had the tags from the original store (except the original price) and a spare button attached. I loved the colors and the print of the fabric... oh AND the fabric! pure soft, delicate silk... as soft as my baby boy buttocks!!

Even though the silk is a precious material to wear, its maintenance is a nightmare. You can't just throw it in the washer and don't even think about the dryer. You can't put it to direct sunlight, you have to be careful with rough surfaces and its mortal enemy it's red wine... which is not very compatible with my personality but... still, a girl needs at least one piece of clothes made out of silk.

So I decided to work carefully on it, trying not to pull too much the threads and making nice and soft cuts when detaching the long sleeves. I used the finished sleeve hems as ribbons to attach them to the waist so I could join them in my back.

But the plan of joining them in the back didn't work as expected because there was too much shapeless fabric. My derrière looked like I had a pony tail... I could even make a parody of the Kim Kardashian "break the internet" picture.

So my plan b was joining the ribbons underneath the blouse. Just like this picture. For this, I had to make two big button holes in the back of the blouse, parallel to my spine. Once the buttonholes were finished I could pass the ribbons through them and attach them together with buttons.

The last step was finishing the hems and the size of the arm holes.

I have to confess I liked the final result. It's a fresh brand new blouse to go out and grab some martinis with my husband... because... you know... silk doesn't like coffee either.

The Purple Halter

I like being organized. It just makes my life easier. And by organized I mean to have a plan for whatever I'm doing, from cooking to travelling and specially in case of emergencies... I'm freaking scared about the idea of not knowing what to do if something gets stuck in the toilet or if we run out of gas in the highway in the middle of a winter storm.

I need planning... I need knowing... indeed, we all need to know what to do in those cases right?

The same happens when I'm working on a refashion. I generally buy the clothes knowing exactly what I'm going to do with them. I make a plan and follow it as much as I can to avoid ruining the piece and doing the opposite of my actual goal, which is, recycling clothes for re-using them, not re-throwing them away.

In this case, I bought this semi-tunic thinking in a skirt. It looked pretty straightforward so with that plan in my head and my ripper in my hand I switched gears to transformation mode.

But, once I cut off the sleeves, the improvisation bug started to itch in my head. What about a blouse? that cute embroidery at the bottom would look great on your waist or maybe on the hips... I wasn't so sure about the blouse since the neckline was horrible and there wasn't too much fabric there to make something else up... besides, I'm not that good at improvising.

Oh but... I'm also stubborn, and easy things kill me of boredom. So I decided to go the complex, improvised way hoping to get a decent outcome without stabbing myself with the scissors.

As you can appreciate in this nice collage, I removed the horrendous purple knitted squared neck (3). Then I opened up one of the remaining sleeves and measured the fabric I needed to reconstruct the front part of the blouse (3 and 4).

I passed the iron over both the amputee neck and the fabric I needed to add in to leave a trace that I could follow when sewing them together  with the machine (5)

Fabric added, I proceed give it a little bit of shape by cutting it out using the back of the blouse (that remained intact) as a guide, obviously leaving some extra centimeters to hem the armpits.

At this point, the lack of planning led me to a sleeveless blouse with halter neckline. Ain't even mad!

Next step was fixing the waistline. Not a problem, just wore the blouse inside out and did some pinning. Then some stitching. Then some more armpit fixing.

I sewed only the right side of the blouse. For the left side I added an invisible zipper so I could get myself through the blouse.

The zipper installation... [sigh] that part was tricky... thank you God for YouTube!. I found this awesome quick tutorial made by Smarmyclothes that did the work of explaining that to me in a nice and entertaining way.

Now, the last step was finalizing the new neck. When I added the fabric to the blouse, my idea was to cover my torso up to the neck, but I needed a solution like a button or a pin or a tie to be able to open and close the neck so my head can pass through.

Then I followed the tie path and made a bandanna out of the other remaining sleeve. I stitched the bandanna to the neck in both front and back leaving one side open.

After trying a nice bow tie in my neck, I remembered I  had a nice recycled necklace pendant that I converted into a brooch months ago. Sweeet!!!!

The cherry in my milkshake. Couldn't be prouder of my new blouse.

I like being organized, but from time to time I also enjoy letting myself run free with just my intuition. If something goes wrong, you can always have wine!

What makes thrifty clothes a new option for your closet?

My husband is one of those who thinks that second-hand clothes are just... ew!. And I don't blame him. Last year I bought a sweater in a thrifty store for our Ugly Sweater Party with some not-nice consequences.

Yes, it's that one in the picture.

After the party and one month later I had to go to the doctor because I had a reaction in my skin. Nothing serious and I'm not even sure if it was because of the sweater but... I still got rid of it.


Things like that turn people away from recycling old clothes. Everybody has the image of the dirty rags with fleas and dandruff. But if you have ever donated clothes to charity, you know that's not true... -because you're not dirty and don't have fleas and dandruff, right?

I'm trying to encourage textile recycling, and by recycling I mean, not only donating clothes instead of throwing them in the garbage bin but also refashioning, re-purposing and re-using them. Why? well, here are some reasons among others I have:

1. If you're concerned about dirt, germs and bugs in used clothes, consider starting a close friendship with dr baking soda and mr vinegar. Seriously, just toss the rags in a pail with hot water, add baking soda and make some bubbles with mr Vinegar. Then put them in the washer and if you're extra picky, the dryer will do the rest. If any bug can survive that killing cocktail... girl, the guy it's a nature prodigy!

2. Clothes not always are worn after they've been purchased. I've found pretty good deals during the Spring season yard / garage sales. If you're lucky enough you can find brand new clothes even with the tags on. Who said BINGO?

3. Fashion itself it's about recycling old trends.... and there's nothing better than using originals instead of faking them. Nowadays, it seems that Vintage is the new Black.... I have seen the word Vintage here, Vintage there, Vintage everywhere!!!

4. Refashioning can activate your creative-self. It's well known that crafting and doing manual work can activate the brain and yarayarayara... scientific mumbo jumbo that's actually true.

5. There's actually too much clothes in the world. Even if we all think that our closet will never be complete, the truth is, the fashion industry has flooded the world with too many pieces of clothing, leaving behind considerable amounts of pollution, and, in some cases, social issues like slavery and child labor. So, recycling can be our own way to ask the fashion industry for sustainable eco-friendly solutions.

6. Clothes recycling can save you some bucks. Just be honest. We all want to go to Paris, the city of Lights and the Fashion Capital of the world. Refahioning clothes it's a good way to start filling your piggy bank without sacrificing your closet.

And the last, but not less important thing:

Who cares where  your clothes come from as long as you are -and look- fabulous!!

Got more ideas? bring them on! Still not convinced? tell us why in the comments box!