A Little Riding Hood

Today's refashion was really fun! I found this gorgeous blue number at a thrift store, some small stain on it that looked like ink maybe? But not a serious issue considering I know where the stain is and it still takes me a bit to find it. :D

Look at the color!

This is very me. I heart blue alot. But what to do with it? I thought about making it a peplum, remove the sleeves and play with the neckline a bit, pair a contrasting belt.. (it actually came with a matching belt that really looks nice. I will be pairing that belt with other contrasting tops and dresses in the future.. yay versatility!) 
That probably would have looked great, but that didn't seem to be quite right. Then, inspiration struck! I played with it alot of different ways before I did any cutting because I was fairly certain I would not be able to recover from a wrong cut and still accomplish the desired look.

I cut off the sleeves, leaving several inches of material.

Buttons begone! I could have reused one button for this piece, but it didn't look quite right. I confess I don't save buttons, which is probably a bad idea, but I currently have no use for them, and button inspired jewelry doesn't ring my bell at all.

I put the skirt over the dressform and let it hang just so, then marked with pins where I wanted to cut it, then cut it I did. A straight a line as I could manage from bottom to top, stopping just short of cutting the elastic that was around the waist. Can you see where I'm going with this?

I glued up the edges so they wouldn't fray, I played and played with that hood to make it just right, I turned the collar out and sewed it down to the fabric on the side to create a more hood like shape. It doesn't look perfect from the side because I didn't sew the armholes up, it didn't look right. I sewed up the edges of what I'd left on the sleeves, and then sewed the ends of the sleeves to each other from inside the hood, which helped it stay on better somehow. It was quite an experiment! I may someday attempt to use what's left of the sleeves, and add fabric to the hood to make it more hood like, but I'm too skeered to right now. But I really like it! (May attempt this again with a similar dress that I don't care if I ruin, just to see if the sleeve thing works, and how to do it. If I make something like this again, I intend to do it with a dress that is at least a large, if not larger. There will be loads more material to work with in such as case, and it would probably look a little more realistic.) But I am very happy with it nonetheless. Now I just need to figure out where I can wear this outside of costume parties and movie sets!