Maternity turned non-maternity

{top: refashion / white skinnies: rue 21 / shoes & earrings: Maurices / watch: Windsor / bracelet & nail polish: F21}

I was up past 4 in the AM with an upset stomach, so smiling for pictures this morning wasn't coming very naturally. {This also explains my nappy, just-woke-up hair...} But I wanted to show you how my project turned out, so I bucked it up and avoided eye contact with the camera as much as possible!

I happened to have some grey jersey knit fabric that matched the top of this maternity shirt perfectly. So I cut off the old material, did some tedious seam ripping, and sewed on my own grey fabric to transform a maternity shirt into a non-maternity shirt!

One project down, a million more to go!

But seriously, let's not let a little stomach bug get us down yeah? Because I don't know if you know this, but...IT'S FRIDAY! We've got a lot of weekend Summer celebrating to do! As for us, we're planning on relaxing at a concert in the park, maybe celebrating the longest day of the year with some burgers, and *hopefully* hitting the lake or the pool for some swimming.

Hope you all have a fabulous, sunny weekend!

Closet Makeover! Lengthening Jeans.

This weekend I cleaned out my closet. Hello there pile of clothes I never wear...

Typically I would throw these all in a box and send them off to the DI.

But this, my friends, is the beginning of something new.

I like to call it, Closet Makeover.

I am going to refashion, recycle, or just re-do each of these so that it's something I will wear!

Stick with me and each Monday I will bring you my new Closet Makeover item of the week.

Genius right?

Today's edition? (dun, dun, dun...)

Reason for not wearing: Jeans are too floody.
Fix: Lengthening Jeans.

First unpick the original hem of the pants.
Then cut straight along the worn line of the fold.
Put the right sides together, pin and sew as close to the edge as you can. (Depending on how long you want the pants to be.)
Iron the crease.
After this I went back and re-sewed the bottom hem as well, just to keep it together better.

Vwwa-la! Long jeans!



{Top: Rue 21, Belt: Thrifted, Jeans: Rue 21, Shoes: Gifted (can't see them anyway...)}

This edition of closet makeover was an easy one.
Now I'm really going to have to start getting creative!

DIY refashioned jeans

I have a pile of jeans that I never wear. They are cute jeans, but something bothers me about each one in the pile. Too floody, too wide but not wide enough...you know, picky stuff like that.

So I decided instead of giving them away and kicking myself one day, which inevitably happens almost every time I give a pair of jeans away, I would make them look the way I want them to.

Like it's that easy.

Well I learned the hard way that it's really not just that easy on the first pair of jeans I tried to bleach. I had high hopes of making them white so I could then color them mint or yellow.

Epic fail.

Tonight, however, I have a happy ending to my newest two projects. (You win some, you lose some.)

#1 - {Seven For All Mankind} I love these jeans. I inherited them from my former roommate who, unfortunately for me, was a bit shorter than I am. So even though these jeans are perfect in every other way, they were just too floody on me. So they sat neglected in my closet, waiting for the day that I would realize what a prize I had. Well my lovelies, that day is today-when I turned them into my new favorite pair of skinny jeans!

#2 - {American Eagle boot-cut jeans} I loved these jeans when I bought them years ago, but not long after that they got stuffed away in my closet, never to be worn again. Well lately I have noticed how "in-style" this frumpy-ish, rolled up jeans look is:

{source}

I love it.

While cleaning out my closet, I realized these AE jeans are PERFECT for the "frumpy" rolled up look. They were just slightly too baggy for it. So I took them in the same way I did my first ones, except I didn't do them quite as tight.

Vwwaa-laa!

And this is only the first two of my pile. Get ready for 7 more pairs of pants that I have big plans of turning into skinnies, shorts, lengthening and even maybe trying to dye another pair.

We'll see how daring I get.

This refashioning thing, I have to say...

I feel an addiction coming on!

Instructions:

Find a pair of skinny jeans you like. Fold both that pair and the soon-to-be's inside out.

Lay the skinny jeans on top of the soon-to-be's.
Using a pen or fabric marker, draw a line down the inside seam.
Pin down the line.
Sew down the line, starting from the crotch line and moving downward.
Cut excess fabric, leaving half an inch.
Fold right side out.
Strut your stuff in your new skinny jeans!