80's Dress Makeover

If I had to answer the question "what do you do?" without answering with my job, there are a lot of things I could say. I like to read. I like to cook. I'm a blogger that you've never heard of who tells stories about food, thrifting, and things that happen when she's PMSing.....

Such as last weekend. I was in an awful mood where I couldn't stand to be around anyone. I've had a bag of thrifted clothes sitting in my closet for the past several years that I only kept because one day I would learn how to sew and make them into something new. Of course, that meant I actually had to learn how to sew first, which like all other projects I start, never made it beyond sewing two pieces of fabric together and getting bored.

So last weekend, I was feeling extremely moody and couldn't stand to be around anyone, so I retreated up to my Bren Room and decided that once and for all, I was going to teach myself how to sew. It's amazing how a few hormones can make you do that.

I blew some dust off the machine, pulled out the beginner's sewing book my mom got me for Christmas, and started practicing on a few scraps of fabric before diving into my first project: an 80's dress given to me by a friend's mother. The dress fit me around the waist like a glove, which was why I kept it around; I knew that if ever I learned my way around a sewing machine I could make it into something new. I wish I would have taken some better 'before' photos, but I slipped it on to snap a photo, if for nothing else, to remember the dress as it once was before I hacked it into a mess.

I had a clear idea in my mind of what I wanted to do, and the structure of this dress really made it easy. I planned to remove the sleeves and shoulder pads and shorten the hemline by a few inches. Easy enough, right?

So I went to town with the seam ripper and yanked out those shoulder pads.

I flipped the dress inside out and cut off the sleeves, leaving enough fabric to pin back and sew around the shoulders. I also took my handy dandy ruler and chalk pencil and measured several inches up from the bottom of the dress the whole way around of where I needed to cut so that the dress would come to a flattering above rather than below my kneecaps.

If I wouldn't have been so grumpy, I probably would have taken the time to do a full photo tutorial, but I ripped and cut and sewed my little heart out, realized I did it all in white thread and that it looked ridiculous, so I ripped it all back out, figured out how to change the thread on the machine, and did the whole damn thing again in matching dark blue.  I also broke and replaced the needle at some point too...because there is no better way to bash out your feelings than a furiously humming sewing machine on a dinky card table.

To make a long story short (or has this story already been too long?) by the end of the day I had myself a new dress that may or may not be a little see-through.

By no means is it perfect, but finally finishing a sewing project that I started is worth something, right? 

The Red 80s-Tastic Jacket

About a year ago on winter break, I went on a Goodwill jaunt and decided I was going to venture into a new territory: sewing.

I bought an array of colors, patterns, and fabrics that I thought, by some stroke of genius, I would be able to transform into something fabulous. That five-year-old's polka dot frock would soon be an adorable mini skirt, the Marilyn Monroe tee would magically become a handbag, and those huge buttons on that 80s-tastic red coat would be great earrings.

After taking the scissors to the bottom of the polka dot skirt off and noticing all I had was a mess of cheap black and white satin imitation, I decided to give up my sewing efforts. And I hadn't even touched the sewing machine yet. Now all I had was a pile of ugly clothes.

Ah! But that red 80s-tastic jacket! I love red, and I love the 80s, I thought. I tried it on, just for kicks, and it fit like a glove. But I wasn't sure--it was a little out there; I had never worn anything like it. While the other sewing misfits were thrown in a bin, the red jacket hung in my closet to be judged. Every time I could potentially wear it, it was always the loser to whatever other jacket wasn't as much of a statement. I wondered, why did I even spend the two bucks on this? Something in me couldn't give it up, though. I needed some sort of a sign.

The sign came in the form of a celebrity. Sarah Jessica Parker. Not even two months later, I opened the latest issue of Glamour to find SJP sprawled on two pages in this:

No more confirmation needed. Wearing that red 80s-tastic jacket would make me look like I belonged on Sex and the City. It would turn heads as I froliked down the streets of New York with my shopping bags and zebra leggings.

So I now wear the jacket with pride. SJP may not know it, but her and I are a little like kindred spirits.

-Bren