One of the most satisfying things about being a teacher is helping a child try something new and difficult, and being a part of the joy they experience when they succeed.

Watching our contestants change the way they felt about sewing on leather and seeing what they created this week was just as delightful. WOW!

 Congratulations to Carissa, from Carissa Knits! You are the winner of the Leather Challenge this week!!!!

Now we must sadly say good-bye to Lauren from The Adventures of Lauren. We will miss her enthusiasm and her sewing skills. But as we know, it isn’t really good-bye it is more “see you later” because we can still see all of her amazing work on her blog.

Thank you for all of your hard work this season, Lauren!!

Lauren really burned the midnight oil to bring us this beautiful creation for the Halloween challenge:

“Out of all the challenges for Refashion Runway- Halloween was the challenge I wasmost excited about. I had found this long baby blue satin formal gown on sale for$0.99 and it still had the tags on it! I quickly snatched it up. I knew that Iwanted to turn it into a Halloween costume. It sat in my closet for several monthsand last Halloween we actually moved so I never refashioned this dress. I knew Iwanted to try and turn it into either a Renaissance faire themed dress or MarieAntoinette. I could not make up my mind.

I still brought it with me when I moved but it languished in my closet. This challenge kicked myself in the rear to finally refashion it for Halloween!! But I actually did not have a vision of what I actually wanted to do. I just wanted to make it shorter. So now I had to come up with an idea. I decided I wanted some lace to go with it so I had to find cream or off-white lace. The only thing I found was this really nice top from Talbots which was just exquisitely sewn. I could not find anything else to thrift, which just surprised me because I found some white but no off white or cream.

First I cut the bottom of the dress off. The lining of the dress actually had a tulle netting attached which I am going to use for an underskirt. The lace shirt buttons down through the back, so I only had a limited amount of lace. It was also princess seamed on top of that. I attached the lace with the cream lining to the front of the dress between the 2 princess seams. I then added gold trim which I had thrifted in the past when I was a bellydancer from a bad, old costume. But it was in fabulous shape.

I detached the skirt from the bodice but only halfway, leaving the back alone. I then cut the skirt down the middle, splitting it in half. I gathered each side and reattached the skirt to the bodice. I curved the sides and then hemmed everything by hand since the fabric was super delicate. I then attached the gold trim to the edges to give it a nice finish. I wanted to have a portion of the skirt visually match and flow with the lace portion of the bodice. Try as I might, there was not enough lace from the rest of the bodice of the top. So I used the arms and connected the lace together. That gave me enough fabric, just barely.

I attached the tulle net lining with elastic to the inside of the dress. I also decided I wanted to make poofy arm sleeves that were separate from the dress. I used the bottom portion of the satin dress to cut and generate sleeves. I used elastic to gather and poof up before the elbow then had the remainder of the sleeves bell out. To have the costume fit me in the future or have it fit other friends I did not take the bodice in anymore. Instead to adjust to various sizes, I used elastic along the upper bodice portion to expand and contract- thus fit many people! I also made straps and created a halter. And to finish everything off I added the gold trim to the top of the dress, the waist, and the bottom of the sleeves.

Now the best part of this costume was I realized I could actually go in different directions with it. So if I left it as is- this dress had a bit of a Medieval feeling to it. I feel like a Renaissance Lady!!

But with the leftover blue satin (which is not much) I made 2 bows. And with some quick hand tacks of the bows to the bodice, adding another petticoat underneath the dress, and some different styling- white hairspray, peacock feathers, and pearls. I totally felt French and like Marie Antoinette. Let them eat cake!!!

This costume cost me under $10 which is the best part and now I have 2 different Halloween costumes. Even though it was a lot of work with all the hand sewing, I really love my costume with options!”-Lauren

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Thanks for all of your hard work and beautiful creations this season, Lauren! I hope you had fun!

We are sending Lauren off this week with a prize package from Complete Balancing Essentials.

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Here I am again, asking for your help. The Renegade Seamstress has been nominated for the “Best Tutorials in Sewing” award over at Craftsy. My lil’ ol’ blog is up against some pretty big blogs so the competition is fierce. The voting is open until October 29th and I really need your vote. If you haven’t had a chance to vote yet, here is the link:

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/10/vote-for-your-favorite-blogs/ Scroll down to The Best Tutorials in Sewing. Click on the vote button under The Renegade Seamstress. Scroll down in that box to enter your email address and click on the submit button.

Thank you so much!

Beth