// #thriftstylethursday // Florals, Florals, Florals!

By choosing the theme "Bloom Where You Are Planted", Brittany of The B Life basically made my day. Hi, my name is Andrea, and I am a florals addict! I decided to make things simple today and chose my most favoritest-floral-vintage-thrifted find of all time (I know, the grammar, but it's ok).

I found this vintage floral top either in Queens or back home in the Michiana area (southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana). I tend to think it was probably at a Salvation Army out in Queens about 6 years ago. I shared this preview of today's post on Instagram 1. because I knew I'd be posting this later in the day and wanted to make up for it, and 2. because I don't often post outtakes and thought this one was fun without being embarrassing.

Let's talk about why I love this top. Yes, floral, but BLUE floral with the white background and vibrant green...just, yes. Also, vintage, with the collar/neckline combination. And the length of the top and the sleeves along with the loose fit...again, just, yes.

I decided to pair it with a refashioned, thrifted pair of high-waisted skinny jeans, thrifted leather loafers, and a necklace I picked up ages ago at Wal-Mart (of all places). This is my favorite 'uniform': blousy top, skinny jeans, comfy shoes, and one simple piece of jewelry.

It also brightened my mood a bit today as I have been on the verge of a headache, which makes me cranky. Florals will always make me happy :). And chocolate. Chocolate and florals. In that order.

Now if only I could find this same piece but longer, so I could belt it as a dress ;-p. A girl can dream!

Since I love a good floral so much, I thought I'd share a few of my other favorite thrifted (some refashioned) floral pieces I've posted about here on the blog!

This reversible mini is a favorite refashion and such a staple piece in my summer wardrobe!

Reversible Mini

Can you believe this dress? I picked it up last April and have yet to decide what I shall do with it...maybe I should model it and ask for your opinions?

Vintage Hawaiian Thrift Score

Another favorite refashion, and I love the pretty floral of this cropped cardigan.

Floral Cropped Cardigan

Here's another sweet vintage/handmade dress I thrifted, then tweaked by changing the neckline and length.

Vintage Pink & Blue Floral

I still have the whole bottom half of this floral robe-to-cropped-kimono refashion in my stash... (insert mischievous grin).

Cropped Floral Kimono

And here's a look from #thriftstylethursday this past fall! A skirt given to me for free at an antique shop when I made a prism purchase.

Pinspired Look

A very recent 'quick-fix' when all you need to do is unbutton a couple of buttons, fold under the collar, and belt an oversized dress to create a more flattering silhouette :).

Belt-It Refashion

Now make sure to check out what other lovely florals have been thrifted and styled today!!! Just click on the picture of each lady to see what they've come up with.

Peace,
Andrea

Quick 'Fix' Friday: No-Sew Floral

As I'm forcing myself to do a major purge of my stash (being very strict about what I keep and what I pass on) I decided to spend my morning playing dress-up with some of the pieces to help me decide. I pulled out this oversized floral dress I picked up while in Michigan last summer. My sister and I always take the time to plan a thrifting trip early on a Saturday so that we can have breakfast and go shopping kid-free. Rare chance for both of us! I absolutely loved the floral print on this dress and knew that I'd be able to do something with it.

Little did I know that I wouldn't have to sew a stitch to completely love the after! I started by unbuttoning the top two buttons and folding the collar inward. Then I put on a thrifted gold belt and called it quits!

I'm loving the bohemian feel to it. It's light and airy and lovely to twirl in :). So romantic! Hoping I can wear it on a date with my husband come warm weather.

Well, it's definitely a keeper, that's for sure! I have quite a pile ready for donation, and more to go through, so I'll update as I go. But if you're looking for a 'fix' for an oversized dress, sometimes a belt is as far as you need to look.

Make sure you pop over to visit Agy of Green Issues by Agy to see her Fix It Friday post! She's sharing tips on sewing zippers...one of my sewing nemeses ;). Happy Friday, all, and happy refashioning!

Peace,

Andrea

Sweet Floral Nightie Refashion

Okay, so this before shot may not be very exciting or even inspiring for every refashionista...but for me, this sweet blue floral sweatshirt material was what inspired, not the shapeless nightie ;). 

I picked it up for $2 on half off day at my local thrift store along with this elastic for a whopping $.15.

I pretty quickly had an idea of what I'd be doing so I cut straight across from armpit to armpit, then cut the top portion into a new bodice. Now, a smart person would use some form of measurement or at least copy the bodice of a well-fitting garment as a guide...I am not smart, but I am lucky! 

I cut away the collar making the neckline match front and back, then cut the elastic and sewed the ends together after measuring it on my waist.

My next step was to close up the sides of the bodice and sew the elastic waistband on...but I did it wrong the first time, and had to unpick and redo it.

I then took the skirt in to an a-line shape, which helped because I initially just gathered the skirt and sewed it to the bottom of the elastic band, but it didn't look good at all! So, I had to unpick the waist a second time, take in the skirt (which also corrected some twisting in the material) and resew it to the elastic.

It still needs to be pressed so that the fabric lays a little flatter, but here's the completed and corrected waistband.

Now I've just got to decide how I want to finish the raw edges...make my own bias binding out of the sleeves, or simply fold under and topstitch? I'd like to do the bias binding for practice's sake, but my impatience may win out ;).

I have to say, I love that pretty blue floral print even more now! And to think that I paid $2.15 for the nightie and the elastic, bought on the same day, and the darker shade of blueish gray is a perfect accent! Kismet. 

I've decided I like it with the buttons in the back. It's fairly sweet, as it is, but part of me wants to add some lace trim. I think I'll stick to styling it with a denim jacket and flats, though. I don't want it to be too 'pretty' if you know what I mean.

The hemline is perfect as is, and yes, this could totally still be a nightie, or house dress, but I think I can make it work for everyday wear with the right accessories. For now, I'm wearing it as I do laundry, dream of spring, and enjoy the fact that it's over 30 degrees outside and snow is melting...even if only for today.

Thought I'd let you see how it looks with the buttons in the front! Hope you all liked this one, and though it totally distracted me from my Marsala refashion, I'm trying to finish that one for tomorrow! We'll see ;). Hope your weekend is and has been amazing!

Peace,
Andrea

Floral Pants

Enough with the florals, already, right?! WRONG :) I love me some florals and have yet another new piece to add to my ever-growing floral wardrobe. I started off with these pants that I thrifted last month for $3.

I really liked the floral print, but they were obviously big on me. I'd been keeping a lookout for floral print pants (either to resize or that miraculously were just right) and when I finally came across these, I snatched them up.

I started by putting them on inside-out and pinning (roughly) along the outside seam and the inseam, avoiding the hardware around the pockets.

I set my sewing machine to the longest possible straight stitch and basted along the pinned lines (after taking them off, of course). I tried them back on, readjusted a bit at the hips and calves, then reset my stitch length to something shorter and resewed the outer and inner seams. I went back after and unpicked the basted stitches. The crotch area gave me a bit of trouble on my initial go, so I unpicked the newly sewn seams, unpicked the original seams and did some readjusting there by taking it in at the front seam just below the zipper then closing everything back up. I think it's referred to as taking in some of the ease? Once I had the fit just right, I trimmed off all of the extra fabric, overlocked my raw edges and tried on my new pants one final time!

Aaaaah!!! I heart them so much!!! OMG! ;) Hahaha, okay, but for real though. I really like how these came out and only wish they were a bit longer....may have to play with the hems and see if I can let them down a bit. Taking them in as I did makes them high-waisted (which I love) and because there isn't any stretch to the fabric I had to leave them a bit looser at the knee (which I don't love). But that's just being picky. I styled them with a fitted chambray top that I bought on one of those rare forays into the mall a couple of years back, a pair of animal print kitten heels from DSW, and a yardsale necklace I picked up for $2.

Gah! I'm dying over how excited I am that these actually turned out! I was so sure that the crotch would totally end in failure and I'd be on the hunt again for another pair of floral pants...which I may or may not be anyway ;).

Hope you like this one, as its fairly obvious that I do. Oh, and I found that floral silk scarf hanging in the background last week and need your ideas on what to do with it!!! I need to be able to wear it (I simply don't use this type of scarf as a scarf) and don't have any qualms about chopping it up! So, let me hear 'em...all of your best ideas. TIA!

Peace,
Andrea

2 for 1: Stripes & Floral

I snatched up these striped pajama pants at a bag sale yesterday...they set me back a whole $.27. That's a rounded number as the actual price breakdown carried the digit out several more places, but for our purposes, they were just over a quarter. Now, the problem with these is that they are size XS (which I am not) and absolutely wouldn't work as they were. But there's a pretty simple solution...and this process works with many kinds of pants! (Jeans, slacks...even sweatpants)

Love me some stripes!!!

 I'm going to make a skirt, so I started by cutting out the inseam (you may want to unpick the seams rather than cut them out if you're worried about having enough fabric to reach around, but I had plenty and am lazy). I then put on my would-be skirt and pinned the front and back where new seams would be sewn.

It's hard to pin on your backside!!! I need a dress form, asap!

 Next, I ran the front and back through my machine, trimmed off the excess fabric and overlocked the raw edges. Now, this fabric is a polyblend and the new skirt was a really weird length on me (ankle-length is not my thang!) so I gave it a chop...or three ;). I kept trying it on and not being satisfied, but I finally figured it out.

Hmm, maybe this length, no shorter...ok, a bit shorter!

Final step was to overlock the raw bottom edge and hem it up! Oh, and press the hem and new seams (makes a major difference, folks). And I've got myself a hi-low stripy skirt :).

No, I did NOT clean up my sewing space, but it IS on my list...that counts, right?

 I like how this came out and the high-waist makes it much more flattering on me, imo. One little quarter, and about half an hour is all it took.

Long post...cause here comes another one! Well, I had cut off so many scraps from my skirt that I had to do something with at least part of them right away. I've had this floral maxi dress for a while now and haven't been wearing it because it is too clingy on my waist and the thin fabric is a bit unforgiving. So I'd brought it out thinking I'd make it into a maxi skirt but had no wide elastic for a waist band. In comes a scrap of striped stretch fabric...

Stripes, meet Floral ;)

 I took the widest section of the bottom of the skirt, folded it over, cutting straight across the top and along one end to create a yoga-style waistband. I sewed up the side (having measured the width I wanted) and set this aside.

Cut, cut, and sew!

 Next, I folded over the top of my dress where I'd already marked it to be cut, and made the chop.

1...now 2!

 Then, I put my waistband wrong side on the outside (right side) of my newly cut waistline and using an overlock stitch, sewed the two together stretching the striped fabric as I went. It was cut smaller than the floral so that it'd create a snug (but not too tight) waistband.

Finally getting the hang of these overlocking stitches on my sewing machine!

Folded over, here is how my stripes-meets-floral maxi skirt looks. Oh, and I even have the cropped top of my dress to play with for later ;).

This was incredibly easy...but that's kinda what I needed in the effort to get my sewing mojo back. And hopefully I have! Here's the final before & after shots:

So, what do you think? I'd love to know what you would have made with each of these pieces! Sometimes I go with the most obvious choice, out of habit I'm sure, but maybe getting a different perspective could help me broaden my vision for refashion possibilities! Thanks for your patience as I enjoy the beautiful weather with my family...but I've missed sewing and posting and hearing from you all! Happy Refashioning :)

Peace,
Andrea