Dress Re-vamp

 I didn't like the sleeves on this dress, and it was missing a belt so I decided to remove the sleeves and make them into a belt instead. Here are the step by step instructions on how to re-vamp and old dress.

Front Before

Back Before

1. Lay the dress out.

2. Turn it inside out.

3. Remove the sleeves. I used a seam ripper to unpick the stitches. 

The sleeves are no detached. 

4. Determine how much of a hem you want on the sleeves. You could use a bias binding if you like, or serge the edges and turn it under once.

5. Measure out your desired hem. I chose to do mine at 1/2", so I measured that out once and then folded it over.

6. Pin down your hem as you go to ensure that it stays in place.

7. Sew your sleeve hem. I used a small zig zag stitch on my machine because the fabric was a knit and had a bit of a stretch. Once you have sewn both sleeves the dress section is done! 

For the Belt

1. Lay out your sleeves.

2. Cut them in half along the under arm seam. This will enable them to lay flat and make them easier to work with.

3. Unpick the elastic at the wrist with a seam ripper. Some of them may just have a hem here instead of elastic, so unpick that instead if that is the case. 

4. Lay the sleeves out on an ironing board and iron our the wrinkles. I used the 'synthetic' setting on my iron because I am not certain what this dress was made of (probably polyester). 

5. Find the middle of your sleeve.

6. Cut it in half and measure out how wide you want your belt to be. There was enough fabric for me to make mine 1" wide (finished). That meant that each strip had to be 2 1/4" wide so that I had enough fabric to fold it over and make a 1/8" seam allowance.

7. Cut out your strips and even out the tops, making sure they are all the same length. I did 4 strips (2 per sleeve). The sleeves were 3/4 length so it I only did 1 strip per sleeve it would have been too short to fit properly around my waist. You can choose to make your belt longer or shorter than mine. If you have full length sleeves you may only need to do 1 strip per sleeve.

8. Pin the strips together, end to end.

9. Sew them all together. I used a small zig zag stitch again. 

10. Press the seams open and fold the belt in half. Pin and sew the bottom together. You will only want to sew one end shut because the next step is to turn the belt right-side out. Iron the belt and then sew the other end shut. Ta-da, you are done! 

To see the finished product check out this post. 

Happy Christmas

What I Wore:

Dress: Black Market (altered by me)

Cardi: Smart Set

Leggings: Sirens

Shoes: The Bay

I bought this dress on my trip to Toronto last week. It had these weird sleeves on it and the belt was missing. I liked the collar and hem a lot though so I decided to bring it home and alter it a bit. The friend I was shopping with suggested I remove the sleeves since that was what made it look off. Following her suggestions I took off the sleeves and made the belt out them. I think it turned out really well, I am quite pleased with it actually. I took some step-by-step pictures while I was working on it in case anyone is interested in re-vamping one of their dresses. I will put that post up either later today or tomorrow. 

I wore this dress out this afternoon for my mum's birthday lunch. We always go to this Chinese food buffet place in Burlington called Foo Ho. It is a little hit and miss sometimes, but the food was excellent today. We also see this lady every year who has her birthday there too and she was turning 93 this year! You wouldn't know it from looking at her too, she is very spry for her age. I hope I am that awesome when I am older. We all had a good time just chatting and eating and my mum opened her birthday gifts. We always make sure to buy her birthday and Christmas presents because she totally got ripped off as a child. We never give her Christmas bags of wrapping either, just to be extra safe. 

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season. Merry Ho Ho as Colin would say!     

Holiday Firsts

What I Wore:

Dress: Old Navy

Shirt: Zellers

Tights: Ardene

Shoes: Ardene

Belt: Reitmans

I really enjoy this outfit. I fee like it would be slightly improved by a lady tie, but sadly I do not own any. Making/acquiring some might be a task for the near future. As you can see by the lights on the stairs in these pictures, we have started to decorate for Christmas! It is actually still really early for us to be doing this, like I mentioned before we usually wait until Christmas Eve to decorate at all. My parents got our tree earlier this week, a big first, and we put it up this afternoon. My sister started putting up some decorations while I was at work, and we (Colin my sister and me) are going to decorate the tree when I am done writing this post. 

Today was my last shift at work until after Boxing Day, but all of those days off are going to be full of visiting family and friends during the holidays. I am not sure how many posts I will be able to get up on here until after New Years because I am literally booked solid util January 2nd. It started this Monday and I haven't stopped going since then. The holidays are always very busy for our family, plus there is Colin's family, visiting friends that are back home for Christmas, and work on top of it all. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining because I love seeing everyone, it just means I have less free time for posting. I might try to cook up some posts on the weekend so that I can just publish them quickly next week. I do have some things planned already that I might be able to have ready for next week.  

Metal Birds

What I Wore:

Shirt: JAcob

Jacket: Zellers

Skirt: Smart Set

Belt: Fairweather

Boots: Chocolate Craving Boot from ModCloth

Socks: ???

I wore this to visit a find from school in Toronto today. We just hung out, had some coffee and did some shopping. We went to the Black Market which is one of my favourite vintage/thrift stores in Toronto. I always find something good there. It has been a while since I have been in, and I was happy to see that not much has changed since the last time. I got a couple dresses, one which I am going to alter a little before I wear it. I'll probably do a before/after thing with it, although I am not planning a major change. Everything was on sale so it was hard not to buy something. I thought I was done all my Christmas stuff as of last night when I finished making Colin's present, but I found a good deal on some things and I ended up buying one last present. So now I am officially done, yay! I liked making presents for people this year and I think I will try to make more (and buy less) in the future. 

As I was walking around town I took a few pictures and I thought I would share them here, so here you go.

Green Lace Bow

What I Wore:

Dress: Old Navy

Cardi: Thrifted (Talize)

Boots: Chocolate Craving Boot from ModCloth

Necklace: FanExpo artist booth

Bow: Ardene

I love this dress, I got a few months ago from Old Navy and was really excited when I found out it was Rayon. I thought it was Cotton at first, but when I touched it it had a slightly smoother feel, so I checked the tag and it said Rayon. That's a nice little meandering story for you. I got a lot of compliments on my boots at work today, which was really nice. I am glad I decided to get this pair and not the other ones, these seem a little more versatile (especially since they match a lot of what I own already) and a bit more unique. I also feel like I could have worn some saddle shoes (I have been hunting for a pair of these for ages) or some short oxford style boots (so much want) with this dress, alas I own neither of these things right now. People kept commenting that I looked like I was ready to go to a sock hop or the soda shop today so saddle shoes would have been perfect. I was thinking on my way home from work that I also could have worn some knee socks, but it seemed a little late in the day to add those in. There's always next time, although I have been trying to avoid wearing the same items of clothing together lately since I don't want repeats on here or in real life haha. Like I mentioned before, it was getting boring wearing the same things all the time. I really enjoy how the cardigan matches the colour of the polka dots, it's little things like that that make me happy.  

All You Need is Love

What I Wore:

Dress: Made by me

Cardi: Smart Set

Leggings: Suzy Shier

Belt: Reitman's

Boots: Payless (6-ish years ago)

Today was a relatively successful day for me. I finished my Christmas shopping, got my mum's birthday present (she's a Christmas Eve baby), helped my dad find a present for her, and wrapped all of my presents except Colin's because it is still being constructed. Usually I don't start all of this shopping stuff until the week of Christmas, so I am please with how on the ball I have been this year. I feel like I am being a broken record talking about Christmas in every post for the past two weeks, but it has been a little all consuming. I really enjoying making and buying presents for people so it kind of takes over my life when I finally get into the spirit. Putting a lot of thought into a gift makes it meas that much more in my opinion,

This evening I hung out with a friend that I have known since kindergarten. We went down to the James St. N Art Crawl with a friend of hers and Colin. It was good night of walking around, learning about refugee healthcare in Canada, looking at art, meeting new people and just generally having a good time. I am not sure how to broach this subject, or how appropriate it is but here goes. In light of the events that have happened today, and in the last little while, it's nights like this that make me feel so lucky to have what I have and be in the situation that I am in. My heart goes out to the families that have been affected by recent tragedy, and they are definitely in my thoughts. I hope with all I have to give that they have support and are surrounded by love because the holidays are rough as it is for some, and I can't imagine having to go through what they have experienced. Having loved ones to support you makes a world of difference, and I am feeling so lucky that I have the ones that I do. 

Pink and Yellow

What I Wore:

Dress: Zellers

Cardi: Thrifted (Talize)

Tights: Walmart

Shoes: Ardene

Belt: Ardene

Necklace: Gift from a friend 

Yay bright colours! Yay polka dots! I love these tights so I was super sad this morning when I ripped a hole in them. I thought I could get away with them throughout the day as long as I put some nail polish on the run. Unfortunately that was not the case. Thank goodness the tights are pretty sheer and you couldn't really see the runs. The right leg is now almost entirely destroyed, and the left side has a hole in the toe. It might be time for these puppies to go in the garbage :( 

You can't really see my necklace the pictures, which I didn't realize until I was already typing this post up so here is a close up shot of it.   

I like how the oink in the necklace matches my belt.   I have been really digging pink and yellow lately, one of my new favourite colour combinations. That and red and brown.