my very first refashion -- a skirt!

This morning when I woke up at home after a week away for work, I decided that it was finally time for my first Wardrobe Refashion project -- altering a super-preppy whale skirt I spotted for $1 last week in a Connecticut thrift store.

The waistband on the skirt was teeny-tiny and the length was pretty unflattering on me, it hit at mid-calf and didn't look that great. So I cut nine inches off the top, created a simple 1/2-inch double-fold elastic waistband, rethreaded it with 3/8-inch elastic, saved and re-sewed the belt loops, and ended up with a comfortable, perfectly sized 19-inch-long a-line skirt!

I still have that top length of fabric left -- I'm planning to sew a tiny reversible handbag with a contrast kelly green and navy print soon. I may steal the piping belt for the handles but for now it looks so cute on the skirt, I'm leaving it in place.

And I still haven't bought anything new! The other cool and unexpected side effect of doing Wardrobe Refashion is that I'm really loving the very last new thing I did get, a pair of pink pajamas I bought in January... they seem a lot more [I can't think of the right word here... valuable? special? I don't know] than if they had been sandwiched between my second-to-last purchase I can't even remember and the mini H+M spree of t-shirts I chose not to do. And I'm feeling super inspired by everyone's posts.

It really feels like restricting my buying has shifted my perspective away from acquiring without appreciating to appreciating without acquiring. So thank you, Wardrobe Refashion!

susan/west coast crafty