DIY cardigan clips

Like I said yesterday two days ago, I'm posting my tutorial for the cardigan clips/pins thing that I added to my cut up sweater.
I've seen many tutorials for DIY cardigan clips using clip on earings. Those are awesome, since vintage clip ons are usually easy to find and can be really unique. The problem I have with mine is that the clips don't hold the sweater very well. So, I tried pins.

Even though it's so simple, I'm reasonably sure that you could put it together in your sleep, here's my step by step process.

1. Materials: a chain, about 6-7" inches long (mine's 6.5") depending on your preference; pin backs; some little pliers; big jump rings (I don't know how many mm! Do I look like a legitimate jewelry maker? Big enough to fit the button); glue gun (it's plugged in somewhere else); and two buttons. 

As you see, I've got 10 buttons in that picture. That's part of my process: be really indecisive! Gather up your stuff, heat up the glue gun, then look through an entire button stash before your choose. Kill a lot of precious time! I decided on those white and silver ones.

2. Attach jump ring through one of the button holes.That's about it for that step. See? Open the jump ring and put one end through a button hole. Repeat with the other button.

3. Attach that same jump ring to chain. That little chain segment already had medium size jump rings attached to each end because it was part of another project that I didn't need. So, I attached those jump rings to the ones on the buttons.

4. Glue pin back to the back of the button. I laid the chain out flat to make sure I was gluing the pins on the same place on each button. You know so both pins will be above the chain so it falls right.

I knew the pin backs were visible behind the buttons, but for some reason, I was ok with that. If it bothers me down the line, I could maybe glue something else over it.

Do me a solid and "Pin" this, would ya? (Just kidding, you don't have to.)

Turn around...backwards dress refashion

Damn, I had a lousy day. Students misbehaving, unable to fill a prescription due to insurance hold ups, and it's St Patrick's day, and I got nothing to do. I wore my green dress to school. Under a big sweater because, oh yeah; March 17th and it was zero degrees out. I'm constantly being told, via facebook statuses that we all need to stop complaining about the weather. No. This is my home, I was born and raised here, and I live with the inclement weather. But, after 5 months, I'm done grinning and reserve the right to announce this weather is bullshit!
It's not like I'm ready to wear this dress anyway. I bought it last year around June. At a thrift store, probably the little one near work. It's currently quite snug, due to a medical condition that makes donuts delicious. Here's the dress:

I took those pictures before I had a blog, so I guess I wasn't thinking about quality. Looking back, I wish I had kept those sleeves. I could've just made a new neckline, I bet that would've made it cuter. But, I took the sleeves off.

Not only did I remove sleeve, I also attempted to fix what happens to the bodice, once sleeves are gone--a problem I call "wonky sleeve." I think I slapped a sweater on and wore this once during the fall.
Back to the drawing board. Yeah, right, "drawing board" seems to imply that I plan ahead.

I pulled out my original "fixes" and repinned the arm holes. It doesn't look half bad in these cheesy selfies, but that's the magic of bad photography. What annoyed me was the bunching pockets. A dress with pockets is usually a great thing, but the hip area was at max capacity.

Also annoying? The buttons up the back. I kept having to undo then redo. What if I flip this thing around? I've seen experienced refashioners do it. Of course, those pockets would never work in the butt area. I sewed them up, and removed them from the inside. Goodbye, pockets...
Let's see...

Not bad! I can live with this. That's a dress on backwards, all right. The butt is in front. It's ass-backwards.

 

Without the flash on, my pictures looked kinda dim and "soft." With the flash on, the material looks kinda shiny, and either way the cool print didn't show up. 

By the way, I always end up taking a million shots, in hopes that I get a few decent ones. Then it seems like a waste not to use as much of them as possible. 

Don't I look a little bit tall? And mad? I can't help it, I just look that way. Also, I'm mad.

Psst...wanna hear a secret? The buttons go up to the neck. I didn't do any stitching, I just folded them down. I couldn't decide on two different ideas:

Should I try and fashion a collar? Or attempt to fix wonky sleeve with an armpit fold-under deal? Or leave it, maybe...

Make this Nautical and Pin-up Style: take two

I'm so tired. So, I'll keep this short. But, not the dress; the dress I kept long because I like to take newer items and make them look old-timey and they didn't wear minis in the 40s. Anyway, I already did this sailor dress refashion but wasn't completely satisfied, so I continued changing things.
First, I got rid of the belt and took in the waist, using the weird-string-pullback things and the snap in cleavage cover that I cut out. Say it, pics:

I'll probably edit this later, but I think you see what I did there, right?
Next, I thought that my dress was missing some kitsch factor, and nautical themed stuff. I wanted to add a red neckerchief thing that crossed like a bow in front. (Can't describe, can't find a picture) I didn't have a neck bow thing like that. I had a men's, red necktie. Take it away, pics!

Used seam ripper, then scissors to open up tie; took out the guts; cut and pinned the fat end of the tie to match other end; pinned and ironed it; realized I wasn't gonna hand stitch that whole damn thing; used a paintbrush to apply fabric glue and closed the seams that way.
With a few stitches, I attached the tie under my dress's collar and crossed the two ends in front, securing them with a little anchor pin. Without any further typing...my refashion refashion:

 If you notice that these look a little more 'shopped than usual...Oh dear god, the cold took a toll on my skin/lips. I didn't apply any lipstick, but did try a lot of foundation and some new pink eyeliner. The photographic result was a corpse like pale and creepy. Shudder.

Finally; mint colored, tacky, Easter dress Refashion

I tried to look up other dresses like this, and wasn't sure what keywords to use. It's like a suit, but it's only one piece, so like a dress, but like a blazer?
Anyway, this refashion is a long time in the making. (boring, wistful story coming) I remember buying it over the summer of 2013, when everyone was wearing pastels and I was hoarding thrift store dresses in an attempt to fill a hole in my soul...Not really a story, actually. As a chick who's always fancied herself as "edgy," I never thought I'd be interested in such a pale green. I'm gonna go with "mint." This is my old, mint dress.

Sometimes, I think I bring items like this home, just for a challenge. It's a 80s Easter lookin dress by Knapp Studio. I guess that I liked the color and the fit (except for the arms). I hate the big shoulders and arms. I hate the buttons.
I started the overhaul process without a real plan. I remember taking the arms off and buying some novelty heart shaped buttons that didn't work out. "Meh," I probably said before tossing it into a pile.
 In early September, I picked it up again.

 

 

I guess I took pictures of the process. Looks like I'm pinning the side seams, so the bodice can be taken in. That's right before I tossed it back in my "later" pile.
Finally...I have my very own sewing machine and was able to get to work. I know from my limited experience that removing sleeves leaves you with wacky sleeve holes.  Here's where I would show you what a nice job I did on them, considering I don't know what I'm doing. But, I can't find where I uploaded the picture. Here's a shot of the cheesy embellishment that I removed. It's an assortment of pearl-like buttons sewed into a doily. It doesn't look bad there, but I assure you it was really lame.

 

 Oh, wait. I found my picture (but not the "edit" button, apparently.)

Nighttime, phone pic...you can't really appreciate my amateur job.
Anyway, I hemmed all the parts that I had previously pinned, I won't walk you through that. The buttons. I actually sewed two on back in September! Look, I just wasn't excited about sitting down with a seam ripper and needle/thread to deal with eight buttons.

  

  I know, not all that exciting but I went with plain, round black buttons. I knew I would have to add something to cover the damage where I ripped off that lacy button thing. I figured the buttons shouldn't compete. Luckily, I have a stockpile of iron appliques. (hand sewed this one on, though. Hard time committing.)

 

  I went with this one that looks like an old crest or a girl scout badge, perhaps. Let's just look at the after pics, shall we?

 I'm satisfied with my results! Here's the thing about the pics. I slapped on a little lipstick, and managed to look drowsy and ghost-pale in every picture. I'm just gonna remove my head...

 Went without the belt for once.

Make this Nautical and Pin-up Style; take one

I got this retro 80s dress from a Savers sale in the fall, and and now I'm finishing the refashion now. I think it was probably $3.50.

Oh, man, look how long it is on me. And the sleeve/shoulder area is all huge. I could tell it had a nautical-ly sailor vibe to it, but it also looked like old timey flight attendant. I did a little internet searching from some inspiration on this dress.

dresses I pinned here

 

So, I took about three inches off the bottom and removed the shoulder pads. Then I had to make the shoulders smaller, so I did what I thought would be easiest and pinned the top of the dress an inch or so smaller and sewed. I think I was supposed to do that to the armpits, not shoulders. Looks smaller though, right?

Then I got rid of that modesty panel thing that was in front. My cleavage deserves to be free!

That mystery photo sucks. It's what I did to the back of the dress. That bunch of strings went across the back of the waist, like some non functioning belt. It cinched nothing and looked out of date. I closely cut off four of the strings leaving two in the middle, thinking I'd tie the remaining two strings on each side to a bow or something. Until I decided what to do, I tucked them into my red, shiny belt.
Because I took out that boob hider thing and because the dress was too damn big to begin with, I needed to do something with the dress because it didn't button up high enough to be appropriate for anywhere. I guess I didn't get a picture, but I hand stitched that floppy collar to the dress so that it stayed in closer (not sure if this makes sense) and then I added a couple hook and eye closures that I had in my craft pile. This would make the neckline higher and make the top more fitted.

Those things kinda worked.

At this point, it looked good, just not quite what I had envisioned. I wanted that quirky, sexy look. Like that Zooey Deschanel jerk. Like Mod Cloth.

Mod Cloth dress

Ooh! I should add a little bow! Those bows around the neck really whimsy shit up! At that point, I just wanted to take some damn pics and get this project in the can (I think that's what they say when they wrap a movie). One sash under the collar. Done.
Wait for it...

Refashion: Black and Gold Dress Fix

I promised myself I would finish all the dress refashion projects (that I started and abandoned) now that I have a sewing machine. I may have gotten spooked because I don't know how to attach the needle, which looks kinda small anyway. I need an adult.
Still, I finished up this New Year's party dress (which I didn't wear because it's so cold). This is what I started with:

I got it at Goodwill, and asked them for a deal, due to obvious need for repair. ($2.00!) The shape and style of it were retro-tastic, but the material was kinda cheesy. As you can see, it looks like it's previous owner tried to grate it. I started by taking off that nasty bow and the broken buttons.

It's a shame because I love bows, but that thing was like all ripped and faded. Look, the seam has some sort of lining. The one thing in good shape would have to get cut off. I liked the idea of having buttons, so I needed to replace those. Finally, a chance to get into my big-ass button collection.

Ooh, perfect! Those old-timey buttons look like they came off some fancy lady's jacket in the 50s or something. They're like a brushed gold, if you can't tell. But, oh no! I only have three of them, and I removed four; one on top, one on bottom, and one on each sleeve. I guess the bottom of the dress will go decorative button-less
Because of the dress's horizontal stripes, I figured I'd skip a valuable step of measuring and marking how much of the bottom I wanted to cut off. That's how I roll; measure nothing, cut as many times as needed. I just eyeballed it, and used one of the gold thread stripes as a guide. Holy shit, it actually worked. I pinned it up and moved on to the hard part.

The hole in the dress was going to be a bitch to deal with. I thought about attaching a ribbon around the dress like a stripe, but I didn't have enough of it. So, I just snipped a little piece off the part that I just removed from the hem. I pinned the little scrap underneath the hole, so that it was like a patch, but from behind. I used my needle and thread to carefully hand stitch it in place.
I was pretty much done! Except the bottom that was still pinned, waiting to be sewn. As I ironed the hem down flat, I figured it would be easy enough to do a quick hand sew. The material is lightweight and kinda rough. I could probably get away with a just a few, quick stitches.

Coming Soon...

In a world... where I never finish what I start...half-finished, still ugly dresses get tossed in a pile and left there...
Ya get it? It's like a movie trailer? Yeah, whatever. In 2014, dresses I bought at thrift stores with the intent to refashion...WILL. BE. COMPLETED.
I'll just link my post from Refashion Co-op here: Future refashions
Don't want to click links? OK, here are the pictures. No narrative to go with them, though!

 Just "Before" Pics

 Ugh, I'm gonna put the rest after the jump, they're not front page ready.

Refashion Co-op: $0.50 Dress

Here's a link to Refashion Co-op, a blog I started contributing to last month. Just another challenging dress to make wearable that I took on in a half-assed way. Check it.

Refashion Co-op: Spring Dress in Fall

More of What I did on my Summer Vacation: Two Dress "Fixes"

I'm sure many thrift store addicts and fashion lovers can relate to that fear that you are becoming a hoarder. It makes perfect sense that in a time when I felt depressed, anxious, and insecure that I would do a little over-collecting. When I have no where to go and very little money, but still want to leave my apartment I know there are many thrift stores in my area where I can get a little endorphin rush from acquiring something kick-ass for a small amount of money. Apparently, I spent my summer hoarding dresses, many of them I even refashioned in an effort to be creative. Take this adorable little gingham thing: