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 4

First off, to announce the winner of last week's wardrobe revamp lavender t-shirt necklace giveaway...

Congrats, Katie! Please send me your address so you can receive your fabulous new accessory!

Now onto week four of my quest to revamp my wardrobe one outfit at a time, one week at a time! This week, I wanted to take on something a little bit more substantial than just accessories.

Meet: my white hippie skirt, circa my sophomore year of college. While classic in its flowy, summer-ness, this skirt doesn't do me any favors. The length is all wrong - cutting across the widest part of my calves, which (thanks to Tim Gunn's Guide to Style!) I learned is a big no-no. It's been in my closet for years, and I can count the number of times I've worn it on one hand. I haven't been able to let it go, either. There was potential here...

I've been eyeing a petticoat tutorial over at Alisa Burke's blog, and my long white skirt was a perfect base to work from - the skirt is already constructed and fits me well, and I had extra fabric from the long length to use for the ruffles. I also used some white muslin scraps that I had left over from another project.

No use revamping a white skirt after Labor Day, so I tried my hand at tea dying the fabric for a more vintage feel. Since I had two different fabrics - the fabric from the original skirt and my muslin scraps - they took the dye in different shades, so my petticoat ended up being two-toned, just like Alisa's. Don't you just love those happy accidents?

...and voila! a petticoat!

Ian had fun taking these photos - "Jump, Carole Ann!"

I must say, the ruffles are fun. Nothing compares to wearing a garment that I made myself!

What do you think? I'm wondering - is this workplace appropriate/what is the right occasion to wear a petticoat?

Wardrobe Revamp: Week 2 and GIVE AWAY!

It's week two 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.

Now, I've got some good basics in my closet, like this Anne Taylor Loft shift dress that I found at a local consignment shop. What I love about this dress is that it is essentially like wearing a big t-shirt. It's so comfortable! It even has pockets. But all alone, it's kind of drab...kind of like the weather in Rhode Island this week...

I added a belt that I recently found at that same consignment shop, and I decided that it also needed a little pop of color. Using my big box of fabric samples and a vintage button from Grandma's button box, I created this happy brooch!

Much better! It's the little things that really make it, don't you think?

Which brings me to....a little thing for YOU! I thought I'd make a twin to GIVE AWAY to one of my readers! Just respond to this post with a suggestion for how I should revamp next week's outfit (below) and you could win a happy brooch of your own!

{ next week's revamp }

I'm starting to realize that I have a real thing for jersey dresses, but I need to do something to make them a little more dressy and distinct - so, help! What can I make to spice this baby up? Necklace? Earrings? Altering the dress? Adding detail?

Write your suggestion in the comments below, and I'll select a winner at random in time for Wardrobe/Revamp: Week 3 next Wednesday. I'll ship it anywhere in the world, whether you live down the street or in Timbuktu, so don't be shy about entering!