Make Do and Mend

Confession: I don't love everything I've made this spring.  I made about eight garments for Sew for Victory, and about half of them were super additions to my wardrobe that I wear all the time, and the other half, I'm sort of meh about.  Either the garment didn't fit well, didn't suit my personal style, or made me feel a bit frumpy.  In particular, the New England dresses.  I wore one for Pascha, and the other one I really haven't worn except to photograph it.  I tried putting it on one day in May, and I felt completely overdressed for an ordinary day.  And just a wee bit frumpy. Which was sort of defeated my purpose in making them, as they were meant to supplement my summer day wardrobe.  I don't have many special events to go to, and I can't really give over a ton of my limited closet space for clothing that gets worn only a few times every few years.  And: Frumpsville.

Bait shoes that I got at Bettie Page on clearance!
 Also: green toes for Penecost!

I decided to try and fix the Tossed Flowers dress to make it more wearable on a daily basis.  I tried shortening the sleeves to mimic the look of kimono sleeves, but that didn't really help, and then I decided the real problem was the bodice.  I don't like set-in short sleeves in woven fabric on myself right now, and the neckline was too high.   Also, as I said before, I'm finding this season of my life to be one mostly populated by casual separates, and my current "uniform" is a vintage-style skirt paired with a simple blouse or knit top.  

So I decided to make the dress into a skirt.  I unpicked the waistline, and very carefully unpicked the zipper from the bodice section, leaving it in the skirt section.  I left the buttons on the pocket section as I like the detail.  I tried on the skirt, discovered it was miles too big in the waist, so I added darts to the back waist, and used some seam binding to finish the waist.  (I was inspired by Lauren's Suit-A-Long post on skirt finishing--it is more of a 1910s-authentic skirt finish than 1940s, but whatever.  It fits well and I'm really pleased with how it looks.  Plus: that print!  Love)  I've decided to be less fussy about authentic finishing and more focused on fit and wearability.  Since I will almost certainly be wearing this skirt with a belt (either the one pictured, or the self-fabric belt I made for the dress), I'm not going to spend a lot of time fighting with a set-in waistband to get a good fit.

I'm still deciding what to do about the red New England dress.  I think putting a cardigan over it would casual it down enough for me to wear in the fall, and have plans to make a navy Datemaker, but I might just unpick the bodice and make another skirt out of it too as I wore the dress with a cardigan for Pascha and still felt just this side of frumps-ville.  In either case, I'm going to hem it up 3" to match the length of this skirt as I think the current length is too long for my frame.   I also have a ton of the fabric left (enough for a whole dress and then some), so I might make a matching blouse from my hacked Simplicity 1590 to make a faux dress like yesterday's outfit.

I'm super happy with this skirt now, and feel great in this outfit!  A win for a rainy Monday morning.  Now I'm off to the DMV for the dreaded driver's license renewal.

Outfit deets:

Ann Taylor Loft Knit blouse: Thred Up (last summer)

Tossed Flowers Skirt: New England dress pattern (bottom half)

Owl Brooch: Acorn and Will

Belt: beltparadise (ebay)

Earrings: Target (old)

Shoes: Bait

Head Scarf: Etsy

Nail polish on toes: OPI Jade is the New Black