Thrift Store Finds Refasioned

This weekend I attended the California Community College Fashion Symposium in downtown Los Angeles. I participated in this event when I was a fashion student and had an opportunity to attend again. It's a really big event for fashion students to present their work in a runway show. This year, the theme was Re-Image, Re-Purpose, Re-Design Our World. For one of the competitions, students were to Purchase an inspiration piece(s) from a secondhand store to be repurposed and redesigned into a whole new couture-like outfit. They were required to use other recycled materials in the redesign, however, findings and notions could be new. The student's could not exceed a $50 maximum expenditure for all materials. Well, the fashions that I saw in this competition really inspired me to try it myself so today I visited a thrift store and came away with some very nice pieces.

This man's shirt is an XLTall Pierre Cardin 100% cotton shirt. I thought the fabric was very pretty. Probably too pretty for a man's shirt. It was very well constructed and was a bargain for $6. There is a lot of fabric for me to work with here. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make from it, but I've got lots of ideas rattling around in my head.

I also found this really cute skirt for only $6. The black design is embroidered and has black sequins attached throughout. The skirt is one of those peasant skirts that is entirely too small for me on the top tier. The skirt is also much, much too long for me. My plan is to cut down the top tier to form a yoke which will also shorten it to a more flattering length. I will probably attach some plush back elastic to the top of the yoke to hold it up. The black tank was brand new for $2 and looks good with the skirt.

Having just done the pattern fitting on this cardigan, it was easy to see how this pattern could be made from a sweater. The dropped sleeves that are on a lot of old sweaters would work out perfectly for View C in this pattern cover picture.

To go along with the skirt and tank, I thought a white cardi would look really good with the skirt and also give me some shoulder coverage for work. Funny thing is that I almost bought a white shrug at Fashion Bug this weekend. This white sweater has the dropped shoulders and the fit is spot on for being refashioned. I'm going to use some tone on tone white quilting cotton for the facings and collar. When I visited NYC a couple of years ago I purchased a sweater hook that has clear crystals on it that will look wonderful holding this cardi closed. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I don't have any shoes to wear with this outfit so I did some on-line shoe shopping and decided to get these sandals from DSW.com. They should be here in about a week or so. Since I live in saldals from April through October, I can't believe I don't have any nice black sandals. The only ones I have are old and worn out. Sine they won't be here for awhile, I'm in no hurry to finish this outfit, but I have already started on the sweater refashion project. I can't wait to show you how it all turns out.