Refashion it! Golden Vintage Dress to Embellished Crop Top
Hallöchen, ihr Lieben!
Hope you’re having a great week so far! I’m starting to get a bit stressed by the wedding preparations, especially with things involving the dress. A blog post was long overdue, though, so I’m trying to squeeze this one in between all the fittings and muslins and whatnot.
This is a really quick refashion project I wanted to share with you. It’s a loose-fitting embellished crop top I made from a dress that the Mr’s grandma gave me a little while ago. (scroll further down for before pics!).
It was basically a rectangular, light-weight long dress that looked suspiciously handmade, but had some sort of label in it, so I’m not too sure about that fact. The dress itself had no shape whatsoever, the hem going way below knee-length. At first I thought it might be edgy and cool but when I put it on it simply looked horrible and I felt like wearing a potato sack.
As it so often happens, I forgot to take proper before pictures (which is really stupid when planning an before & after project, I know!), so this is all I have:
The dress was too narrow to give me enough fabric for cutting out a whole new garment, so I decided to take the easy way out and cut the bottom off. Chop, chop!
I overlocked the raw seam and hemmed it by hand using matching gold thread.
The fit was ok-ish, but the top still lacked something. Since it’s a really simple shape, I thought I might add some embellishments to add some bling and make it a bit less boring.
I played around with different embellishments I had at home, like studs and acrylic diamonds.
I liked the studs best and started placing them on the neckline. Once I liked what I saw, I attached them using my pliers. I added more and more until I was happy with the end result.
Since the crop top is very wide, I love wearing it with my pencil skirts. Since they have a high waist, my belly won’t show which makes this look pretty work appropriate. Also, I can wear a tank top underneath during the cold season which is neat.
Personally, I love the tight skirt – loose top combination which is quite flattering as it makes your waist appear smaller than it is!
It’s amazing how such small changes can make a big difference to a garment. Take an hour and an unloved garment and turn it into something you love wearing. Instant happiness!
I would love to hear about your experiences with transforming your old or vintage clothes!
xx
Charlie
Happy sewing!
♥
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Happy Holidays everyone!
Start of by sketching out the shape or letters you want to create. Alternatively, you can use Word or Photoshop to create a layout you can print off and cut out.
I used the sketch to check if the size was right and to mark the position on the shirt.
Because I couldn’t find a good font and sketched my own, I copied them onto squared paper to make sure they were even and all the exact same size. I positioned them on the shirt and used chalk for markings.
When transferring the template onto the foil, make sure everything is mirrored. Draw the shape onto the matt side of the foil, you can use pen or pencil. If you don’t want to mirror your letters, you can try to draw them onto the “right” side, but since it has a protective film it might be a bit tricky and the ink of your pen might come off and ruin your iron.
Cut out the letters, place the onto your shirt and press the iron onto them one by one to prevent them from slipping out of positon. Don’t remove the protective film until all the letters are firmly applied and have cooled off. 
You can now remove the plastic film and use the extra sheet of protective paper that comes with the foil to set the glue a second time. Never iron without the paper after that otherwise the foils sticks to your iron and the whole this is ruined. You can wash the shirt at 60° and iron it from the wrong side if necessary. 
First of all, the wool! You won’t find many craft shops on the Faroe Islands, but when you find one it’s a knitter’s dream! Most people live on sheep farming and as you can imagine, Faroe wool is pretty awesome. I bought a 100g ball of 100% sheep’s wool in a natural colour in a little shop call
I was really looking forward to my trip to
They also these super cute hooks and eyes in different colours. I haven’t seen anything like these before. They’ll be nice on a keyhole closure or dress.
Hi everybody! Today I want to share with you a book that I pre-ordered on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. And since I got it last month I’ve been making plush animals!
Here you can see the chubby legs and feet which were the hardest part. Luckily, the instructions are illustrated and very detailed. So I think even a confident beginner could tackle this project. (The dragon is actually the last project in the book – the other ones are certainly better for absolute beginners!)
Today I thought I’d share a sewing-related craft project which is super easy to make. You can make these paper balls from different sorts of paper and in whatever size you fancy. They are very quick to make and perfect for parties or home decor.
1. For the book paper balls get some old book from the flea market or your own shelves. Draw a circle onto the paper using a glass/jar/cup and tracing it with a pencil.
2. Cut it out (you can cut through several layers at once to speed up the process) and repeat until you’ve got enough pieces for the amount of paper balls you want to make. You will need approx. 8-15 circles per paper ball, depending on the thickness of the paper and the size of the paper ball. For bigger ones I’d recommend using more.
3. Stack them on top of each other and stitch down the middle with a straight stitch and a wider stitch length. My standard machine had no problems tackling 12 layers of book paper. However, if you are using more than 12 layers and they get stuck in your machine, you can simply sew them together by hand or try using a stapler.
You can also try and make them using colourful scrapbook paper or pages from old fashion magazines.