Spring 2015 has sprung!

Finally! It was a harsh winter in the Maritimes this year... as you can see. Shoveling the snow kept me quite busy, no time to show off the pieces I had been preparing during January and February.

But now, snow is melting away with the rising temperatures so... I threw away the shovel and came back to the computer to update the blog, and I'm proud to start with this nice long skirt...

It was originally a dress with an 'empire waist'. I didn't quite like que shape of the top so I decided to cut it off. Then I cut more fabric... and more fabric... because you know, I'm a mini person, hobbit size.... and this dress was soooooo long that I bet it belonged to Galadriel, the Cate Blanchett Elf in The Lord of The Rings.

When I finally got the right measures for me, I made the low hem with the same Cut-Iron-Sew method I talked about in a previous post.

I did the same for the upper portion to shape the waistline but in this case I left a small openning to insert an elastic band previously cut according to my waist measures. I used a pin to get the elastic through the 'tunnel' and once it reached the openning again, I sewed the ends together and sealed the small openning with some more stitches.

I couldn't wait any longer to wear it... It was a really, really long winter!

From mini-dress to mini-skirt... well, not-so-mini-skirt

I didn't think in trying it on in first place because I would have been naked... isn't it ironic?. This dress was really short! even for me, and you know that I'm only 145cms height. I'm not prude either, it's just... I don't have the thin, graceful and firm body of Adriana Lima... bah! who needs that body when you have a sewing machine and a $1 dollar dress that came out of the clearance corner of a store!!

Yes!! $1 dollar! isn't it amazing?

Anyways, back to the dress... I liked the colors, especially because I have some shirts that look well with whatever new design I could come up with. The other thing was the pattern, I kinda liked the shapes and the dots and... wait... is that a dragon? and is it SMILING? ookkk girl... I think I've already had too much wine...




Ok, now back to the refashion. In this case, the most obvious piece that came to my mind was a skirt, so to make this an easy-breezy refashion I used the 3-step method: Cut-Iron-Sew. This is a great method for hemming long pants, skirts or shirts (story of my life) or fixing damaged edges in the clothes.

Following these simple steps, I started by Cutting the top of the dress. I also did a couple of stitches on each side of the new skirt to adjust the waistline and adapt it to my body. Then, I did a double hem to prevent fraying and passed the Iron on it to make it firm.

The last step was Sewing the hem and that was it! in less than 15 mins my new Thanksgiving skirt was ready to shine... in the office. Yes I know, in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October but... what the heck! there's always an excuse to feel pretty and new!

While the rest of Canada is under 30cms of snow, here in Halifax it's only rain!! and cold!