Mar 25, 2014

Once in a Blue Moon



I love the fashions of bygone days, mainly the 50's and 60's.  Whenever I look at photographs from those decades I just long to be a part of them.  I missed out on the 50's, and was pretty young in the 60's, but nonetheless, I am drawn to them.  My mom always wore dresses it seems, and often we had matching ones.  I look at her in photographs and love the dresses she wore.  I wish that she would have saved them.  I would have worn them today.  Thankfully, she taught me to sew at a young age and I am forever grateful for that.  Since I am drawn to these retro fashions, I have decided to have an ongoing series called "Retro Runway."  This will be my attempt to refashion today's clothing, giving them a retro vibe.  Of course, when I say "today's clothing" I might just mean something from the 80's or 90's, like the dress I started with below.  I picked this up at a free clothing exchange.  I was first drawn to the navy and white.  It had a huge double collar, double-breasted bodice, big white buttons, and a dropped waist.  It had potential! 


I drew inspiration from these two vintage patterns...



And, this is what I ended up with...






You can continue reading if you would like to see the steps I took to complete this dress.

Mar 9, 2014

The Renegade Seamstress on BurdaStyle!

A few days ago I received an email from Beth Huntington, aka The Renegade Seamstress, sharing her good news of being asked to do a live web seminar for BurdaStyle!  How exciting!  


Beth continues to wow us with her creative refashions, wonderful tutorials, and overall friendly and fun personality.  She is a weekly contributor to eHow, and she has a book coming out later this year!  Add to that her being a wife, mother, grandmother, and kindergarten teacher, and she is one talented and busy woman!

If you've ever wanted to be a part of the refashion craze but just don't know where to begin, now's the time!  I'm confident that Beth's web seminar will not disappoint and that you'll come away with loads of inspiration and refashion motivation!

The fun happens on
Monday, March 31 at 11:00 am EST.

For a full rundown of the course and all of the details, please visit the link below:

 Refashion: Inspiration and Projects to Revamp and Recycle Your Wardrobe

If you'd like to read Beth's fun post announcing this exciting news, you can do so here.

Good luck, Beth!!