Welcome to this month’s
I’m calling it:
“HOT MESS” to “ON FIRE”
I unearthed this “little” beauty (as you can see its HUGE) from my church thrift store on 96th Street. It was $7. I honestly did not know WHAT I was going to do with this HOT MESS, but I liked the tomato color and it is %100 percent silk–the chiffon and the lining. (Silk moves so nicely.)
Here it is:
Yes, this gem has shoulder pads and could fit another half of me in it.
I thought about removing the pads, hacking it off at the beaded waistline, and calling it a day. But, that would be too easy. Cheating. So, I dropped the whole thing down to my waist and decided it would be a skirt.
I marked the sleeve to cut off. And sewed them up to form the side seam.
Next I ran a piece of elastic though the casing in the back to cinch it up and in a bit.
The skirt was too long. So I thought about chopping it off and hemming it-a LOT of work (the bottom of the skirt is nearly a full circle.)
Then I thought I’d cut it off and shred the bottom as a kind of funky hem. (Trick, on polyester and man-made fabrics, you can actually singe the bottom by running it quickly though a candle flame. You have to be even and fast, but not too fast. Tricky because you can burn a big hole in the garment.)
So I decide to do the LEAST amount of work and I simply picked up the front of the skirt at the beaded midline. This will do two things: 1. Save me time and 2. make a pretty and slimming line. Win Win!
I pin the new beading line and then just hand stitch it into place. Easy Peasy.
Now for the finished skirt. I didn’t use any other materials other than a piece of elastic. So I’m all in at a whopping $7 dollars!!!
First I paired it with (do you recognize the crop top from my previous post?? I just turned it around.) A tad revealing but surprisingly comfortable. Just hoping there are no wardrobe malfunctions!!
Next I paired it with a simple burnished Gold tank. (thanks Amy Scheibe! dear friend and author of, A Fireproof Home for the Bride!)
Then I tired a cream and gold top I had on hand (again from a thrift store.)
I thought I was done, but then, as I was taking the skirt off, I saw it might make a fun cocktail dress. I simply added a gold belt:
So, what do you think? Did I go from HOT MESS to On FIRE? Let me know!
<noscript><a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/8771952/”>HOT MESS to ON FIRE</a><br/>
<span style=”font:9px;”>(<a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com”>polls</a>)</span>
</noscript>
Thanks for tuning in! My next installment will be May 12th!
And remember The Dressmaker’s Duke available is at:
jessrussellromance.com 