|Refashion Runway| Week 2: Emerald

Warning: long post, heavy on photos!

For this week's challenge I was a bit lost. I love emerald, but I had refashioned my emerald pieces already (if you're new here, you might want to know I made a challenge of not buying anymore fabric or clothes for this year; - for those who follow for a while, sorry I am mentioning it again). I made a pair of pants for my kid out of a women's pants first, and then I turned a very old and dated dress/skirt/whatever that was, into a lovely mini dress I'm terrible in love with. 

So, I turned into my own wardrobe, hoping to find something with that color. I found the dress I mentioned before, a tank top and a dress I made from scratch a few years ago. It's this one:

The refashioned dress was out of the list. I loved it too much to just refashion it again. This one was an option. I mean, I love it, but I haven't been using it much lately... And that fabric? I love that fabric... I even thought about cheating! AH! I still have lots of that fabric left... but, nope, no way! I couldn't do that even if I wanted! lol

So, I was left with the knit tank top. Now, I have to confess, even though I seldomly sew knits, I fear them. Really! So, I felt dissapointed that it was my only option for the emerald challenge... UNTIL it came to my mind that I still had a box somewhere which held a few more treasures meant for refashioning. YAY! And guess what? I found an emerald and white striped button up shirt! How lucky?!

It was a women uniform's shirt. I believe it came from my sister's in laws, from the time they had a restaurant many years ago (even though this is that old, the fabric is as new, perfect!). Apparently, I had done a few cuts to it already. It was missing a sleeve, all buttons and a scrap was cut on the back. Pffff... what on earth will I be able to do with this?! -  I thought!

I tried to get inspired by playing with the shirt on my dress form. I had fun, and I finally got to somewhere. I wanted a corset looking top, BUT I wanted to save the collar and re-use it too. I then put the shirt around (back to front and front to back), used the collar as a turtle neck and pinned the front, side and back darts. Since my dress form is a bit bigger than I am, I had to do it again with the shirt on me. I even played around with the tank top, I envisioned a dress, using it as the skirt. Then I realised the BIG stain on it and rested the top... not for too long though. 

I'm pretty happy with what I made. I don't sew for myself as often as I did before I became a mom, but everytime I do, I get oh so happy, that there is a little something new, for me, by me. 

I used the striped shirt for most of the piece but I also used a band from the bottom of the tank top to create a band on the waist, that is slightly tighter than the top. I love this effect. Then I cut two smaller stripes and used them as bias tape to finish my arm seams. I added green flower buttons to this that were already in my stash too. I thought about adding a 4th button down the back, but I actually liked the open effect it created without it. 

People, it was my first time using a twin needle. I wasn't quite sure if I should share it but I have to. I felt so stupid and just wondered Why, o WHY, did I wait so long?! I have my twin needle wraped in its original paper since I got my machine (it came with it), and that's well over 10 years ago. I took it out like three times, just to look at it... Who would have thought? Sometimes we're so scared to try something, and then we do, and we just feel stupid that we didn't before. 

I love the details on my new top. I love how the collar looks backwards, with the flower button in the middle. I love the bias tape creating a visual contrast, and I even love my scrappy flower added to the front. This, people, was a happy disaster. 

Well, I might have accidentily cut more than I should while constructing, and I did something really nasty to my top. I felt I had lost it! I cut it right on the front! How would I make up for that annoying mistake? Well, if you can turn something awful into something wearable, you must be able to cover up your mess. And that's what I did, of course! So, I just closed the hole with a few stitches, I didn't even bother to make them all pretty, I was going to cover them anyway. I used very small scraps to made a fabric braid, and from there I made a flower. Stitched it on top of the mess and my top became even cuter!

It was a fun sew for me. Then hubby and I had a lot of fun getting those photos taken. It was something we used to do a lot together before any babies arrived, and we felt old and untrained for this right now, but in the end, I think we got a few good ones. 

Oh, and did you recognise the pants I paired it with?! Yes, they are the no sew refashioned pants I showed you back in July!

Now, go to the Refashion Runway page, check what my fellow contestants did with the emerald theme, enjoy and vote for your favorite, please.