A Delicate Shade of Blue

Today's refashion was very much an experiment. I found this at a 'by the pound' thrift store (LOVE those), and bought it along with about 8 other things for about $3.50. That was actually my Valentine's Day prezzie, spending the morning with my beautiful hubs and walking out with an armful of old, ugly clothes... it's the life!

Look at all those delightful goodies!

That pale blue thing in the middle is what I'm going to post today. It was a nightgown, several sizes too big.

Yi yi yi.. But it's a nightgown, so is it really that bad? Anyhoo, I browsed Pinterest for longer than I care to admit, looking for a little inspiration. I already knew I wanted a hi-low skirt, but wanted to do something I haven't done yet. And that's exactly what I ended up doing. Check it out.

I deliberated at some point simply taking it all in and leaving the sleeves large and flowing like a kimono, it really did look lovely that way (in imagination land at least), but thought I definitely wanted to try the idea I found on Pinterest. So I tried it on and found the approximate place for cutting it which would leave me with both plenty of room for the skirt, and enough room for the top I had in mind. (I think I barely managed.)

With said top part, I sewed up a hem on the bottom of the shirt with enough room for the elastic to fit, and left room for said elastic to be threaded through. I used the safety pin to guide it. It fit very nicely around my rib cage.

I sewed up the button up part as I would not need the buttons to get this top on and off. I wanted to cut the top in a large scoop neck that would allow for more elastic in that peasant top look, (see where I'm going with this senoritas?) I ended up doing this:

Isn't it amazing how chopping can be simultaneously terrifying and satisfying?

After I sewed that up and threaded elastic through it, I decided to play with the skirt for a change of pace.

 I found some pretty silver elastic for the belt part of the skirt, I wanted it attached, would save me the trouble of fitting said skirt, or adding a zip. Sewing all of that one was an interesting challenge, I'd never done it before, but it ended up looking pretty good.

Then the funner part came, of chopping the hi-low. I chopped it alot longer than I thought I wanted it, and only took off an extra inch and a half in the tweaking of it. I did not bother to give it a hem, the fabric is a bit fraying, but I'm not really bothered by that for this outfit.

The sleeves were the last thing to do, and for some reason they were the trickiest of all. Note to self: if I do this type of sleeve again, give myself plenty of extra fabric for a hem. My future self thanks me. You're welcome self.
I gave them the same elastic treatment as the rest of the top. Doesn't it look like a cute bonnet from this angle? Moving on...

I finally tried it on with great fear and trepidation, how would it look? 

I wasn't initially satisfied with the look, I didn't want my midriff to show, and none of my tank tops were a good color to match with this blue. (Pale yellow might work, but do I look like a yellow loving person to you? Yellow is NOT my color in any shade.)
So I played. And played, then struck inspiration with a large purple belt I found for maybe three dollars at Goodwill. You wouldn't think pale blue and dark purple would go together, but oddly enough, it worked. Check it out!

Allow me to assure you this actually looks cuter in person, sometimes the picture doesn't do it justice. I wore this to a birthday party, and one person commented on it, was very surprised that it had originally been a nightgown, so I'll call it a success!