Wardrobe Revamp: Wrap-Up

It's been a fun 10 weeks of revamping my wardrobe one outfit at a time, one week at a time. My goal was to grown-up-ify my clothing, plus have some element of every outfit be made by me. As the weeks went on, I got bolder and bolder (starting with simple accessories, and eventually making a couple of dresses)! All in all, I pumped some new life into 10 outfits:

Week 1: Accent Belt

Week 2: Pop of Color Brooch

Week 3: Purple Upcycled Accessories

Week 4: Petticoat

Week 5: Bib Necklace

Week 6: Rosette Headband Tutorial (You can make one, too!)

Week 7: Remixed Top

Week 8: I made a dress!

Week 9: I made ANOTHER dress!

Week 10: Fancied-Up Purple Skirt

After 10 weeks, my closet is looking good and my skills have certainly grown. Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

I've decided to take a break from this weekly series until the mood strikes me to attack my closet once again. Until then, I'm launching a new series in its place - it'll be called "This Is Awesome" and I'll be highlighting things that are, well, awesome. Tune in next week to see what it's all about!

Wardrobe Revamp Week 10: Fancied-Up Purple Skirt

It's week 10 of my mission to revamp my wardrobe one outfit at a time, one week at a time. My goal is to grown-up-ify my clothing, plus have some element of every outfit be made by me! And guess what...after 9 weeks at the new job, I still haven't worn the same outfit twice. It's amazing how many outfits I have when I dig deep into those items that I usually pass by in my closet, and add/alter a little something to make them wearable.

This week I tackled something in my closet that was oh-so-plain:

Plain purple skirt that was on sale at Target

+ hair accessory that I bought my freshman year and never wear...

= prettier, fancier skirt! Ian and I were having a lot of trouble getting a good photo of this outfit. So bear with me here. (Ah, it's that time of year when it's too cold to take photos outside!)

I hid the seam of the lacy stuff with some t-shirt flower rosettes and embroidered felt leaves...

...and wore this outfit to work yesterday, with a matching rosette headband that I made myself! Learn how to make one yourself here. Wahoo! Another fancy outfit (that is actually all jersey material and hence super comfortable) to wear to my grown-up job!

Wardrobe Revamp Week 9: ANOTHER Dress!

{ my second dress from scratch! }

I was definitely excited after making a dress for last week's revamp, and encouraged by your supportive response, so I tackled another pattern this weekend. This one was a little more complicated, but still a good beginner pattern. I took my first odyssey into the "fashion fabrics" section at Jo-Ann's. Ooooo! I chose this surprisingly and uncharacteristically bold print. I think Project Runway is finally taking effect, because this choice was totally Mondo-inspired! (Any other Mondo-lovers out there?)

It was a for real pattern - like, print out tons of pages and tape 'em all together, mark sizes and whatnot situation. It's kind of like a whole new language to learn. I need to remind myself to not be afraid and be patient with myself during this learning process. While I was cutting & sewing, I kept repeating out loud: "Slow and steady wins the race." No use rushing through - it will only lead to mistakes and frustration!!

I found the pattern through this really wonderful blog called Grosgrain. Kathleen, the author, takes on dress patterns in something called "A Frock by Friday" - you can sew along with her for a few days of the week and have a finished garment by Friday! I love that she helps shed light on the crazy different language of patterns with photos and further explanation. I've always found it too intimidating to work just from a pattern because I'm a visual learner and find them confusing. So she's a translator of sorts.

And Callie was a big help, too, as usual.

I wore the dress last night to a big event at work - check out that official nametag!

{ unwinding after the event }

I am so proud of myself! For being ambitious enough to tackle this, for making the garment from scratch, for choosing such a bold print. Wahoo! Thanks for your encouragement!

Wardrobe Revamp Week 8: I made a dress!

Brace yourselves - for this week was less of a revamp, and more of a garment from scratch! That's right, I made a dress!

I just loved that teal jersey fabric that I picked up at Lorraine's a few weeks ago, and made into a cute remixed dress/top last week. So I grabbed what was left and created something to wear to Erica & Keith's wedding last weekend. Not bad for a $3 cut of fabric!

I was inspired by this "1 hour dress" tutorial. Go ahead a be skeptical, because it definitely wasn't a 1 hour project, and I ended up reworking the pattern that they gave a lot. But it helped me to figure out which measurements I needed to take and how the whole thing would come together. It's nothing too fancy or complicated, but it's a dress from scratch that I felt good enough about to wear in public, which is a big step for me. So hopefully there's more to come!

At the wedding, I was going for a classic Mad Men look, with the length, boatneck, and cinch belt. I even wore a super long vintage necklace so I could really channel Joan.

It looked great next to my friend Jeremy's outfit - skinny tie and all.

Oh yeah, and this guy too.

It was so great to be with my "college family" again - my old a cappella group, The Higher Keys. The evening wouldn't have been complete without us bursting into song and grooving to a soul train, and we didn't disappoint!

I can now cross of goal #7: Make a Dress from my 10 Things to Do in 2010 list. Just a few goals left!

Wardrobe Revamp Week 7: Take Two

Welcome to the real week 7 of my quest to revamp my wardrobe one outfit at a time, one week at a time. Last week I had a wrestling match with my project into the wee hours, so I decided to revamp my bedtime and postpone the project to this week! So here I am - picking up my quest to grown-up-ify my clothing, and have every outfit include something I created myself.

I started with this cute little number. I picked it up from my friend Kerrie at a recent clothing swap.

Unfortunately, it had a couple of stains that didn't come out in the wash. So in order to make it wearable, it needed to be transformed. My favorite part about the dress is the top - how the sleeves and the shirred bust combine. So I cut off the bottom of the dress, just above the stain, and added a whole new bottom with some teal jersey fabric that I picked up last week at Lorraine's.

It was harder than I thought. Hence, the struggle into the night. I think I took it apart and re-sewed it about four times - jersey fabric plus shirred top = wonky.

Even now, I can see about 18 things that aren't quite right about it. But isn't that always how it is? When you're so close in the creating process, you can see everywhere that you went wrong.

But I've decided to make peace with it. Even if I can see imperfections, I'm not sure if the world can tell. Besides, failure is part of learning.

On its own, it's not quite a grown-up outfit - but I dressed it up for work today with a fancy black sweater, earrings, and heels. It's all about owning it.

Have you made something that wasn't quite perfect? Did you move past the imperfections?

Wardrobe Revamp Week 7

Friends, I tried. I had big plans for a revamped dress this week, but I wrestled with it til 12:30 last night and it just wasn't cooperating. So, I'm taking this week off from my weekly wardrobe revamp to revamp something else in my life: my bedtime. Which is also a very important part of lookin' good at work!

But fear not! I will not leave you without inspiration!

Check out this video clip of my creative friend Marisa of New Dress A Day on The Nate Berkus Show. She makes recreating outfits look so easy a doable, and shares some of her best tricks here:

Enjoy!

Wardrobe Revamp Week 6: How to Make a T-Shirt Flower Headband

Welcome to week 6 of my mission to revamp my wardrobe one outfit at a time, one week at a time. My goal is to grown-up-ify my clothing, plus have some element of every outfit be made by me!

This week's wardrobe revamp was sort of a revamp in reverse. Lately, I'm been having something I call "bulging drawer" syndrome. My drawers are overflowing, and I don't wear half of the things inside them. It was time to look through and bid goodbye to some things.

Like this t-shirt. It's been a great four years we've had together...but it is time, for sure. Goodbye, pink T! I will revamp you into something wearable! I was inspired by how last week's bib necklace used t-shirt flowers, so I've decided to make a cute little headband with some t-shirt flowers created from my retired T, and I wanted to share a tutorial so you can make one too!

How To: Make a Recycled T-Shirt Rosette Headband

in 5 Super Easy Steps

You will need:

1 t-shirt

a scrap of felt

headband

hot glue gun

scissors

1. Cut three strips from your t-shirt, about 1" x 16".

2. Twist one strip between your fingers. I put one end under something heavy and did the twisting with both hands.

[ this is the part where my cat, Callie, tried to help out ]

3. Roll the twisted strip, starting at one end, around and around until it starts looking like a flower.

Glue here and there as you're rolling so that it will all stay together.

Leave about 1" free at the end...

...and wrap this underneath your flower and glue in place.

Repeat steps 2 & 3 with two other t-shirt strips.

4. Lay the three flowers on your scrap of felt and glue down.

Trim the felt around the flowers so it can't be seen anymore.

5. Sandwich your headband in between the two felt pieces, with the flowers facing out and placed where you'd like them to sit. Apply glue to the felt piece with the flowers attached, and secure to the remaining felt scrap.

Trim that second felt scrap so it doesn't stick out.

And you're done! Now you just have to wear it proudly!

My photographer was out at parent/teacher night, so I had to go it alone on this one!

Enjoy, and let me know if you make one! I want to see pictures!