I tri so hard

I actually didn't "tri" that hard. I'm singing that song by Linkin' Park (RIP singer) but my post is about triangles so...word play?

I'm following through on something, even if it does take me a decade or two. Months ago, I previewed three dresses that I said would be "coming soon." I was only wrong about the "soon" part. I did the first one, (spring green with the circles) and here's the second one. It's got triangles.

Bleh, I am repulsed by that picture. It's a very '80s style by that Leslie Fay label I see so often. Here is an extreme close up of the print I'm going on about.

I'm honestly not sure when geometric patterns in fashion were a thing, but I'll just go with the '80s as that's when these frocks were born. There's something I like about the shapes, and the points, and straight lines. No flowers here, folks, just geometry.

Here are some other examples!

I had the black and green diamond pattern (known as harlequin) with this piece from last Winter.

Here's an unusual, asymmetric dress from the past that I sold in my Etsy shop.

Another find that I had to sell. I didn't think I altering it would have been wise.

 

This '60s maxi skirt sold fast and I regret that I didn't wear it first.

Let's bring it back to the main subject with the very simple alterations I made to the dress I showed you back up there. 

It looks like I took it in ever so slightly on the sides, then chopped some of the already short sleeve off. In a previous post I mentioned my new thing which is removing collars. 

See what I did? The top part of the collar that goes around the neck was hacked off. The front part (the lapels?) were spared. 

I took a few inches off the bottom. Of course, only a few inches. I like my dresses long and my tops tight. After reviewing the after pics, I considered that I may have wandered into too unsexy territory.

I actually do like it, I just don't want to come off as so conservative or modest. That ain't me, man! I just like mid length dresses and '40s style! 

I wore a black sash to try and tie it in with the shoes and necklace. It's a triangle necklace, by the way. I have been seeking out necklaces with shapes other than just circle.

Here's a little close-up...

 Here's a little closer.

I'm pleased with how the top of the dress came out. It seems like it fits so much better without the collar. 

Valentine Girl

That title actually is a song title. "Valentine Girl" from New Kids on the Block. Not sure if they were describing a girl as a "valentine girl" or if they were addressing the object of affection as "girl". Like, "Will you be my valentine, girl?"
You don't even know what I'm talking about. Here's the "before" incarnation of my Valentine's day dress:

It was great, it looked like a big sack of nothing, thus easy to work with. It's made of a polyester-textured material. I really liked the shirred waist which had sadly lost its elasticity over the years as had the elastic around the cuffs.
I was just planning on wearing it to school for our little first grade party. I was envisioning a cheapo version of a romantic era dress.

What?

Actually no, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I guess I was thinking about bell sleeves, jacquard ribbon, cameo jewelry, and velvet. Ummm...the period costumes from the 1994 adaptation of Little Women?

I could only find a few pictures of this lovely gown worn my Winona Ryder as Jo March. I went for a veeery loose inspiration of that.
First thing I did was remove the nasty old elastic from the sleeves before figuring out how to deal with that waist. I had a trick in my pile of sewing supplies that could totally work.

(Made big to show details of package.) Looks like you just sew it on and then pull those little elastic strings. How could that go wrong? Did I mention this is a secondhand item that came in a big box of notions?

(Once again; picture embiggened.) This doesn't even show the full scope of damage this damn thing caused. You see, after sewing the damn thing in place I went to pull the elastics only to have them disintegrate into waxy little pieces that become stuck during the process. Oh, it was nasty.
At this point, I really should've given it up. This is not some one of kind, designer piece. It was a non-remarkable, simple shapeless dress made of acrylic fabric.
But I'm stubborn and not in the good way. Have you heard of the sunk cost fallacy?
It's defined as "Reasoning that further investment is warranted on the fact that the resources already invested will be lost otherwise, not taking into consideration the overall losses involved in the further investment." Here's the source.
So, I sat down in front of the TV and seam ripped out the whole thing. At this point, I had used up all the perfectly matched thread from a small spool that I happened to have on hand. I would have to buy more. (Once again; I should've just tossed the thing.)
New thread in hand, I decided I might as well take in the dress just a tiny bit.

Nope, needed to be taken in quite a bit more. Unpinned and repinned and finally sewed.
Now...the waist. I sure as hell wasn't going to re-shir it. What I did was sew in a wide elastic band and didn't take any damn pics. You just pin it on and the stretch the elastic while sewing.
I also lowered the neckline and cut off a few inches from the bottom. I considered using this awesome ribbon that I knew I had stashed for something, possibly the neckline.

When I went to retrieve said ribbon, I realized all I had was the tiny section seen here. I'm sure it could've been useful, but I had wasted too much time for creativity. The after:

Not exactly exciting, but comfortable and practical. I do have several cameo style necklaces, but I went with the roses pendant on a chain.

Here's the side by side:

I have so many mostly completed projects that I want to show off. So...I'll get right on that.

You must be my lucky star

Yeah, I know these blog posts are coming fewer and fewer, my bad, so sorry, etc. Here's a great refash of a really cool dress.
There's more...more of my poor blogging habits. There's no "before" picture. I know I took one at some point, but it doesn't seem to exist. That's because I started this project awhile ago and I'm just writing about it now.
Fear not! I drew up an artist's rendition of it:

LOL you guys. As you see, this dress has many of the common themes of '80s clothing. Actually, a common theme of my refashioning is complaining about the problems of '80s clothing. Such as:
-Oversized fit.
-High necklines. 
-Poof sleeves with shoulder pads and when you take the pads out, you're still left with a bunch of room at the top of your dress.
-Weird waistlines. Dropped waist? I don't get it, I don't want to have a square shape. The darling dress as depicted in my little drawing had a regular elastic waist. What it also had was an extra layer sewed into the shoulders and neckline and falling below the natural waistline.
One of my biggest complaints is a large top that flows over the waist band like so:

What you haven't seen is the incredible print my dress has.

Stars. Black background, silver/blue/pink stars. I should have sold it, but I needed this incredible print to be mine.
I really dropped the ball on the pictures for this project. I actually did something really cool with it. I can try and describe. Oh, and I can wear it three ways!
I took off that extra top layer.

Since it was all connected I had to repair the neckline and I went ahead and made it a little lower.

Pardon my pretentiousness. I'm like, "oooh, I'm glamorous!"I also hemmed it like, one inch. I think I actually took a small chop off the bottom and then realized I should not have. I folded the hem once and then used this stretch lace

to hide the raw edge:

I just wanted to show that cool vintage packaging.
So, I had that top layer I wanted to do something with so I did. I just can't exactly what. I think maybe I sewed up an arm hole and used the neck hole for...let's just look at the pictures shall we?

Ok, so here's the dress with the top layer. (Look, a star necklace too.)What's happening here is I've got one arm through it and the ties (scroll back up to my drawing) are still connected to the top and are tied around my waist so it's like a wrap dress that has a peplum look on the left (your left) side. Close up?

I love a good asymmetric look. Here's another way to wear this thing:

Now, I've got the top on sideways or something giving me one side with a big, flowing arm hole. Words are really not working with me here. More close up.

That's a selfie closeup. Can you see I connected the two layers with a brooch? Here's a picture of it alongside the necklace so they can be better appreciated:

Here is the dress with a belt on it:

Here's a line up! The one labeled as 3 is my favorite.

Quick! Just blog something! Here's a necklace

So, it's fall now. I haven't blogged. When school starts, I seem to go through a little transition period. I'm like, "Woah, I have to get up and go to work everyday and get used to a new assignment! My mind is blown!" So, I haven't blogged in almost two months. I figured I better get something posted to break the blog fast. It's a necklace put together from scraps of three other necklaces.
I started with this:

A silver tone octopus pendant. Not exactly a rare find, but I found it at Savers for $1.99 and had a plan. You see, I love necklaces. I rarely wear my bracelets or rings any more and I almost never wear earrings. But necklaces I have in abundance. I like to find the right piece of neck jewelry to flatter my outfits.
When I wear something like a solid color t shirt or anything that lacks detail in the bodice section, I like long necklace. Not a long chain or strand of beads; I've found that I'm so damn particular that I can describe exactly the necklace I want to pair with a t shirt. It's got a cluster of stuff...
It has a long and multi-piece pendant and not a long chain. So, the good part of the necklace takes up space, not the chain. Examples from the internet:

I needed a chain about 24".

All photographs were taken using a Canon digital SLR potato. I added those tassels to that chain about two years ago (here's that post.) So there's that part.
Now scroll back up and look at the octopus. See how there is an extra hole there on its bottom arm? I don't know what that hole is called. I just needed something to hang from it.

Here is an understated little cubic zirconia necklace that I haven't worn in a while. This was easy to transfer because the bale was easily opened and closed. So, there's something.

Nice, but nope; it still needs more. How about one of them black tassels? Sure.

Aaaand that works for me. Didn't feel like fancying up for any decent pictures. Here's the necklace on a shirt!

I'll write about the school year next time, I have other news. That necklace ain't the only thing that's been chopped up. Look at this pic from a little while back:

Look at the neck area. See anything? Here, I'll embiggen and circle it...

I can barely see it either. That's because I tend to make them disappear in my pics. Here's the dark secret I've been hiding!

Nice to mole you.

Remember 2002? Here...

I've been very bothered by 3-dimensional birthmarks for quite some time. They don't look awful in the picture, but I assure you I noticed and the damn kids definitely noticed and some were curious enough to ask "What is that on your neck?"
Finally...nothing. Nothing's on my neck. Despite them being benign, I recently had them removed via surgery. Which I may not have elected to do had it not been for that other thing.
There was a huge, hideous bump in the back of my scalp near the hairline. I've had it since birth, but only in my adulthood did it grow to ginormous size. I did not get a picture of that. Nor did I get a picture of the fourth thing. The third now-removed mole, once located on my right axillary. That's the armpit.
On that note, I'll wrap this up. I have many, many refashions to show you so you better come back!

False alarm on the springtime; it got all cold and snowy again

Do you know what happened last week? It freaking snowed. I do hate to discuss the weather so frequently but it is quite relevant to this thing I do. With the outfits and the sewing and such.
A few posts back, I was talking about a blue dress that I wanted to wear, but could not because the temps were around 60.

Oh god, even the photo editing couldn't save my face here. No makeup=bad

See that dress up there? I got it at one of the last 50% sales at Savers and it's made out of some (artificial?) woolly material. But don't you like the lumberjack plaid? Here's what's wrong:

Those damn sleeves. Why do I keep encountering them? Stop gathering the sleeve holes, you jerks; I don't want poof sleeves ever. Also, the pockets stick out and there are large belt loops with no belt.
Behold: I messed around with the sleeves and added a shiny vinyl belt with matching shoes. 

Look! It's above the knee! By the way, I did nothing with the pockets because they're fine once belt is added to the equation.

Oh, I did this new thing where instead of taking 100 pics and being picky, I just took a few. So, I'm not as happy.
I got mad blue dresses! This post is a two-for! Two dresses in this post. A short post...and this one's a no-sew.

Look at all that thick blue fabric. So warm...every part of me is covered in soft coziness. I can't wear that though.

That's what I took off with a brand new pair of fabric scissors while sitting at my parents' house. That's all? Let's see what it looks like.

I did it! It's a wearable dress, using only scissors. I trimmed additional material off the neckline, btw. Then the obvious: the ol' belt sash made from the trimmed off length.

But, wait! There's a third thing! It's a goddamn three-for! That necklace! It's a button necklace...
I did not make the button necklace. Ring the shame bell.

First, I got that at Hobby Lobby. I am a feminist, and I don't like their anti-birth control stance. My uncle got me a gift card for Christmas and was like, "use at your own risk, it's a bad company!" Deals before beliefs, we say. Look, $.75.
It's the ultimate in slacker DIY! It looks like something awesomely handmade, but isn't. Also, it's only part of the necklace. If you want to wear that thing as a necklace, you gotta DIY. They also sell a ribbon. Which was also on sale. Which I bought and used.
I did however do a little hacking. One of the buttons is vaguely flower shaped and pink. I changed it out for one in a green color!

Ta Da!