A Skirt Makeover: Florida Oranges

At the halfway point in my fall Project 333, I'm realizing that I need to get my butt in gear if I want to finish the rest of the refashions before the three months are over! So this weekend, I finished a refashion of one of my Pin Up Girl Clothing Jenny skirts.

The skirt features a super cute orange boarder print that I feel in love with when I first saw it! While I'm sure the designers had California in mind when they selected this print, I thought it would be just perfect for sunny Florida. Yummy!

The skirt is made out of a great stretch cotton but the fabric is really thick. In it's original state, this skirt was gathered instead of pleated. It had been pretty much gathered to the maximum allowed by the fabric. Kudos to PUG for not skimping on fabric but it meant taking in the skirt wasn't going to happen without removing some of the width or changing to pleats.

Plus, the skirt just never seemed as flattering on my figure as I thought it should be. Now I know that a slimmer skirt that is pleated is more flattering for me that a very full, gathered skirt.

And after I saw Lauren of American Duchess do just such a refashion on her orange Jenny skirt this summer, I knew mine would meet the same fate someday. And I'm so happy that I finally did it!

 Oh, I feel like this skirt is just so much more flattering now! You can check out the original skirt paired with this exact same top here.

I have another Jenny skirt that I can't wait to do the same makeover on. Must refashion all of the gathered skirts!

 Do you prefer a gathered or pleated skirt?

Project 333 Update: October

Phew! I can't believe it's November already! I have been having a blast with my fall Project 333 so I thought I'd share a little update on how it's going.

Originally, I set out to do 4 refashions. I only completed one but it came out too big (shrinking waist ??) so it needs to be tweaked again. I do have two deconstructed but I just need to put them back together! I've been quite busy with other things but I'm hoping more free time in November to get some sewing done.

There are a few things that haven't been worn yet. One is the green and orange dress. I think it's a bit big now (the belt certainly is!). I really need to try it on and decide if I can alter it or if it is time to part ways. My beach pjs haven't been worn but I knew they weren't going to be worn a lot. My capris are just a bit too casual for work so I haven't worn them yet. Then is the fourth skirt set to be refashioned which I haven't even started taking apart.

 I had one pair of shoes kick the bucket so I'm replacing it with this skirt. I really need more skirts since so many of mine are currently out of commission!

Hopefully, I'll also get to capture more of my November outfits too!

5 Reasons to Do Project 333

I've been really enjoying doing my Project 333 so I thought I'd do a little bit of vlogging about it. Today, I'm sharing five reasons why I think everyone should do a Project 333 at least once.



You can check out my other Project 333 posts here or get all the info you need to get started on your own Project 333 here.

Refashion and a Re-do

Doing Project 333 has really changed the way I look at clothes. I really thought about some of the pieces that I liked in theory but I never quite got around to wearing. Most of them had fabrics I loved but either the fit was off or I had to wear a fancy bra which I'm not willing to do for more than a few hours.

So I picked four pieces to refashion as part of my fall Project 333. If I could make it work, then they'd become keepers. If not, I can say goodbye knowing that I tried. And here is the first one!

This is a fabric that I fell in love with at Jo-Ann's but I couldn't handle the price tag. But I was able to score it for half off in the red tag clearance section. It's first life was as a wearable muslin of Simplicity 8398 which I later used to make a bridesmaid's dress out of a yummy silk cotton.

The main problems with this dress were that it was a bit long waisted, that it was a bit too big (and I never got around to making the matching belt) and that I couldn't wear a normal bra with it. I decided to refashion it into a pleated skirt.

 I'm much more comfortable with novelty prints only on the bottom half of me anyways. I styled it with a lace cami and white blouse for a very girly look.

 Oh, yeah. I also got my hair cut off this weekend. I tried and tried and tried to grow out my hair and make it work with the Florida humidity but it was not to be. It was not going to happen.

Previously, my pixie cut decisions had been very emotional and impulsive. I wanted a change so I got one. This go around I was much more logical and thought out about it. A pixie is very easy and very me. I love the lifestyle that comes with a pixie. Riding with the windows down anyone.

Not to mention that I absolutely love it! I'm planning on keeping it much longer term than any of my previous pixies. Florida Stephanie has her Florida hair back. :D

And because I couldn't find a photo of the back of my head from my previous pixie, here's the back of my head. Now and forever I'll have a great reference for future pixies.

Overall, I feel like this look really captures what I want my wardrobe to feel like- vintage inspired, bold colors, fun and easy.

Now to just finish the rest of the refashions so I have options in my wardrobe again!

P.S. Check out my other piece of new nerd bling. It's a mobius strip with I love you. I know. stamped around it. Yay Star Wars!

Project 333: Fall 2015

This past weekend, I decided to do another wardrobe purge and start another Project 333 capsule wardrobe. The idea behind Project 333 is to pick 33 pieces that make up your wardrobe and wear just those pieces for 3 months. Not included are workout gear, underwear and sentimental jewelry that you wear every day like a wedding ring. I also opted not to include any jewelry because I don't wear much jewelry so it's not as big of an issue for me as clothing is. The rest of your clothes gets boxed up to be revisited after three months.



The first thing I did was to unbox all of my old clothes and pile it all on my bed. After not having it for three months, would I be ready to let go of some stuff? Yes! I also had a better idea of what kinds of pieces I needed more of and which kinds I could have had less of. I really did a great job of building a great mix and match 40s wardrobe in my summer capsule but I really missed having the option to have a more relaxed casual look.

I'm really realizing that my ideal of having a 100% authentic vintage look every single day is not really what I need or want. So I'm going to mix it up a bit and do some vintage with a twist looks. And I'll revisit it all again in three months if I want to swing more towards authentic vintage. The great thing about fashion is that it's not meant to be static.

So here are my 33 things for October, November and December. (I'm starting a few days early because that's when I had the time to come up with it.)

1-8: I have 8 tops three of which carried over from my summer capsule.

9-14: And here are six skirts-three old and three new. The two center ones are going to get refashioned in to pleated rather than gathered skirts and I'm going to take a bit of the fullness out because crazy 50s volume is not great to wear on an everyday basis.

15-19: I've got two sweaters which are the same two from my summer collection. I have added two new jackets. Jackets just say fall to me and even though it's no where near chilly enough to wear them outside right now, where I work is very air conditioned and I'm hoping it will cool off nicely by December. I've been watching a lot of capsule wardrobe videos on youtube and looking at wardrobes on pinterest and I've noticed that a lot of them include scarves, even in the summer. So I've decided to include on in mine even though I don't really wear them except for warmth. If it doesn't work out, it'll be bye bye scarves.

 20-24: Four dresses and my 1930s beach pjs because I love them. I decided to include one Christmas dress because I adore Christmas. :D

25-28: These two dresses I love but don't quite fit right. So they will be refashioned into skirts. And I have one pair of jeans and my Freddies capris.

29-33: Four pairs of shoes and one purse. I'm not sure this purse will make it all the way to December but if I switch it out for one later I'll be ok with it. I'm still in the mood for this summery purse right now.

So I'll definitely have a different look from my summer wardrobe. I can tell I'm more into a 50s look but with a modern twist. So yay for spicing things up!

What are you excited about wearing this fall?

Summer Project 333 Wrap Up

It's been almost 3 months since I started my summer Project 333 so I thought I'd share a bit about how it went. If you missed the first post when I started Project 333, go check it out first. I started out with 4 empty hangers for WIPs that I wanted to finish during the three months.

 And I ended up finishing three of them. The yellow skirt I got finished early on and it actually got a lot of wear even if it didn't make it on the blog. The other two pieces got finished later so didn't get as much use. They are quite summery though, and probably won't make the cut into the fall wardrobe.

And here are the things that didn't get worn. The two dresses got retired pretty quickly and replaced by other things. The white blouse also got replaced with a new white blouse since it's getting a bit sad. The blue skirt is also in need of replacing and never made it out of the closet. And it was too hot for capris this summer. I also had quite a few pair of shoes go unworn or almost unworn so I'll be rethinking those.

I added four new blouses to my wardrobe which I did actually need.

And three new skirts. One I made, one I purchased and one I added from my boxed up wardrobe.

And, of course, the 1920s one hour dresses! I love them and I'm sure several will make it into the fall wardrobe.

And I also added one more cardigan (hello, air conditioning!) and a comfy pair of flats.

This brought my total number of items up to 41 which isn't bad. I have a much better idea of what I actually want to wear on a day to day basis. I'm excited to try this again for fall. I have gotten a bit tired with the pieces since many of them were on heavy rotation before Project 333. Since the weather is a lot more consistent here in Florida as compared to Ohio, my wardrobe rotations are going to be more about not getting bored rather than because my closet has suddenly become unseasonable.

This weekend, I'm going to be prepping my next round of Project 333. I haven't finished any of my "Fall" sewing projects but they are more like "Winter" projects here in Florida anyways so I'll be leaving space for them in my Fall wardrobe. I've really enjoyed having a smaller wardrobe to deal with when getting ready in the morning.

The Next Wardrobe Adventure: Project 333

I'm embarking on yet another wardrobe adventure! I really enjoyed putting together my 1940s capsule wardrobe and I shared last week about my experiences with one so far but now we're kicking it up a notch. I stumbled upon Project 333 and it's blog earlier this year and I instantly fell in love.

Project 333 (pronounced three thirty-three) is a minimalist fashion challenge that has a basic premise. You pick 33 items and that becomes your wardrobe for 3 months. At the end of the 3 month period, you can go back to your full wardrobe or try another round with a new set of 33 items. The goal is to help you see that you can live a smaller wardrobe and that it has benefits for your life. It's not about rigidly following rules or suffering through something that's not for your. It's totally cool if you find you need 37 items or want to do it just for two months.

I've been wanting to do this but it was never the right time and my wardrobe was never just so. Finally, I decided that I'm just going to do it. It will never be the perfect time. So I picked my 33 items and packed up the rest of my closet on Wednesday and we'll see how this goes.

My Project 333 will run from July 7 through October 6 which, from what I've heard from Floridians, is all summer here in Florida so I can pretty much expect the same type of weather that we're having now except hotter with more rain. That helped out a lot because living in a new place with new weather can make this project difficult. I also  decided to stick with mostly 40s pieces since that's what I've been really loving this year. So let's do a run down of my 33 items.

Items 1-7: Blouses- Wearing History Norma Jean and Ruthie blouses, white button up blouse (left) blue 50s blouse, white sweater, black 50s sleeveless blouse, white Mexican peasant blouse (right)

I'm noticing a lot of blue and white here. This may be an issue but I do love all of them.

Items 8-11: Skirts-green 40s, red 40s (left), blue 40s sailor, green anchor (right)

Again, the two green skirts are sort of duplicates. That's something for me to keep in mind while sewing during this quarter. I also want to replace
 the blue skirt (since it's getting a bit old) which I may do during the project.

Items 12-17: Dresses-red roses 50s dress, orange floral 50s dress (left) green 40s dress, Melody print 40s dress (blog post coming soon!) (center) black and white maxi dress, pink 40s dress (right)

I included two light weight 50s dresses for those days when I'm in a 50s mood. I don't have a ton of 40s dresses so I included them all (including a new make that I'll be blogging about soon). I also included a modern maxi dress for events where I need to dress modern. Its crazy comfortable and easy to dress up or down.

Items 18-22: Other- red 40s suit jacket, white bolero (left) 1930s beach pjs (center) Freddies jean capris, red 50s capris (right)

And a couple other completer pieces.

Items 23-29: Shoes and Purses- I've got 5 pairs of shoes including flats and heals. I'm including my current summer purse (not pictured) and one vintage purse (not pictured) which I haven't decided on yet.

Items 30-33: UFOs- Being a seamstress, I knew that I was going to have to bend the rules of this challenge to make it work for me. I'm including 4 not finished pieces in my wardrobe. First up is a peplum blouse and skirt in yellow eyelet. Next, I have a red sleeveless blouse and hawaiian print skirt.

Once I finish these projects, I'm going to focus on fall/winter sewing instead. Having lived through a Florida winter, I know that it does still get chilly but a lot of my Ohio winter wardrobe is just too much. I've got a couple of things that I want to add for winter that I'll work on if I can keep in focus. If I want to add anything else, I'll have to retire something from my capsule wardrobe.

My other modification of the Project 333 rules was not to include any accessories other than shoes and purses. Maybe next go around I will but it was too much for me to think about this time. I did, however, make an effort to pair down the accessories that I do have out to give myself fewer choices and even put a few pieces in the donate pile.