Skye sent me this piece and I loved what she did with it. It's actually something I need to do with a bunch of the shirts that I have in my collection!
This crazy green and houndstooth top I got from Ragstock in Madtown, WI many moons ago is hands down the one piece that I have the most fun wearing. I do a lot of recreating from op shop and vintage finds, but this is one purchased item I keep coming back to.
I paid $5 for this dress - I live in Melbourne, AU where vintage and thrift stores charge pretty high prices - and I got it because I loved the crazy cameo disco print. I'm a bit of a sucker for weird prints and LOVE cameos, however the fabric had a bunch of runs and holes in it in different places and was essentially a homemade muumuu.
What does Skye have up her sleeve??
At the same sale I picked up this super cute orange vest and loved the stripes at the waist (I've been on a bit of a vest kick this winter in Melbourne, our weather is particularly suited to them) but it was also $5 so we're at a total of $10 now.
The first time I wore the vest I noticed it had some moth bites at one hip so the first step was to stitch them up, I took some plum coloured thread and stitched up the holes!
I unpicked all the seams on the dress and cut the fabric into the pieces I thought were usable (with no runs or holes). I was musing over this when my fabulous husband suggested I join the vest and dress fabric to recreate my fave green top! The original is this really weird mix of blouse and vest that you just wouldn't think to put together, the red and white stripes in the V neck don't really go with the orange and brown on the sleeves or collar but somehow it all just works.
So I used my original green top as a template and cut out sleeves, collars, neck inset and facings and got to work. The best luck was that the straps of the dress were the perfect width to use for the cuffs!
The first step was to make the sleeves and inset them to the vest armholes, a little tricky as the vest is knitted and stretches a bit when worn, so I built a little 'give' into those seams and used a straight stitch on 2 for extra flex. I created the 'top of shirt' insert for the neckline and sewed together the collars then pinned and sewed as with the sleeves.
Once all of that was together all that was required were cuffs and buttons. I searched my extensive button collection but couldn't quite find something snazzy enough so headed off to the haberdashery section and picked up some 'nanna' buttons in the perfectly matched peach colour (approx $2). The photo may not show it but they have little iridescent sqaures in them which repeat the square pattern in the dress fabric I used for sleeves.
I was very pleased with the result and wore it out that night to hubby's band gig (check out his band HERE!) at a local pub and then to an after bar at a friend's house where it is reported I had a lot of fun on the dance floor ;) I'd like to think it's all thanks to my fab new top!
Thanks for the continued inspiration Marisa! I was put on to your site by a dear friend almost a year ago and have loved watching you save so many incredible clothes. Congratulations on a truly imaginative project and I wish you all the very best with your book launch. if you ever come to Melbourne you should totally let me know, I'd be thrilled to show you around my city :)
Skye, thank you so much for sharing your creativity with us! It's amazing that you took something you loved and made another version of it with pieces that you thrifted. That's the best thing ever - I hope you wear this one out because it's simply amazing! And, PS, I can't wait to come to Melbourne. You just opened a can of worms with that offer!!
