Wow! I’m so blown away by this week’s challenge. These ladies are crazy good at what they do. I can’t wait for you to see what they’ve created for you this week!

So I present to you, the last challenge of the Refashion Runway: All Stars Season.

Enjoy!

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Carissa from Carissa Knits

“I had quite a difficult time finding something in the right blue hue to fit
this challenge, but eventually stumbled on this 1980s beauty. It didn’t
look too terrible to begin with, but who thought a wrap dress that buttons
in the back would be a good idea? I had to get my husband’s help just to
try it on for the before photo! The cool cotton fabric screamed swingy
shift dress to me, but I knew the skirt wouldn’t quite be long enough to
make a knee-length dress. So to supplement the printed fabric, I pulled a
“silky” tank top out of my refashion stash. Using a self-drafted pattern, I
was able to cut all the pieces for the main part of the dress from that
fully pleated skirt, including facings for the neck line too. Then I cut
the tank top into strips to add a bottom border for modesty’s sake. I also
added some narrower strips of solid blue to the sleeves’ cuffs for a
consistent look.

Since I still had the entire bodice of the original dress left over, plus a
couple small pieces of the tank top, I whipped up a quick little bag to
coordinate with my new dress. I added fusible interfacing to both the outer
and lining layers for stability, popped in a zipper salvaged from a
previous refashion, and made a wristlet strap for easy carrying. I’m
looking forward to using this bag as a bright pop of color with a more
neutral outfit too.

And finally, a girl’s gotta have some accessories! I grabbed a seldom-worn
necklace – already refashioned once from an 80s necklace of my mom’s – and
took it apart to make a new necklace, bracelet, and earrings using some
jewelry findings from my stash.

This season of Refashion Runway has been such a blast and a real challenge
at the same time. Some seriously steep competition! Thank you, Beth, for
organizing this once again! And thanks to everyone else – for reading, for
voting, and for sewing along!”

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Gema from Sequins and Slippers

“Hello!
For the last time then… here’s my refashioned outfit. These past few
weeks have been so much fun; I’ve loved pushing myself – and seeing all the
different interpretations from everyone else, for each week’s challenge!

This week? Pantone Colour of the Season, Riverside Blue…
The challenge for me? Finding anything in a charity shop in that colour…
The solution? Look at it in the same way as the ‘Buttons’ challenge!
No-one wanted to wear one big button (!) – that week was all about
accentuating an outfit using buttons. And that’s what I used as the driver
for my piece this week – using accents of colour, specifically Riverside
Blue, to highlight the refashioned outfit.

I found a VERY long white skirt, lined (which is just as well, as it was
quite sheer cotton) – the perfect blank canvas!

My plan was to buy paint in the right colour blue, and flick it at the
skirt at regular intervals! I saw it done in a catwalk show once… I will
try to remember the name of the famous designer who did it, to add to my
post, but it was such an avant-garde way of changing the garment, it really
captured my imagination. Thing is – I wasn’t sure of how the fabric would
react – to paint, or to washing (after the fact) – and surely the point is
to make something I’ll wear again? My mind was made up when I found out how
long it would take for the paint to arrive in the post (nowhere nearby
stocked the right shade)… SO. Back to the drawing board. Meanwhile,
struck by the thought of China cups…

…I found a men’s Hawaiian shirt, with the perfect blue running through
the design – result!

By taking the shirt in, with darts and through the side seams, and adding
bias binding to the new armholes, I created a blouse that goes well with
jeans. And Rod.

But it also works without Rod… 🙂

As for the skirt, I painted buttons with nail polish I found in the right
hue, before sewing them onto the skirt in such a way that tailored it to
fit better. I also took it up to a more reasonable length, hemmed it, and
used one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to add a final
detail to the hemline.

I think it will be a very wearable outfit… when we get some sunshine. And
yes, I am still hopeful – even though Autumn seemed to arrive on Thursday!!

As I think I’ll get wear out of the blouse over jeans, I didn’t want to hem
it any shorter – so I tied the front, just to style it in a way that would
work with the skirt…

I’ve had such a great time, with all these talented ladies, I feel so
grateful to have been a part of the Refashion Runway All Stars Edition!

Thanks Everyone!

Gema x”

xxx
*Gema Enseñat

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Marisa from The ReFash Stash

“Having grown up around water all my life I have always been attracted to the color
blue. When I looked up what shade Pantone’s Riverside Blue was, I was in love! How
lucky am I to get to work with such a beautiful shade of blue!

While scouting around for the perfect Riverside blue shade I found this perfect
button down shirt! I also I found this beautiful 2-tone dress (I just love the
pleated bottom).

First, I separated the bottom from the top of the dress.
Removed the sleeves from the button down shirt.
Cut the back of the shirt off to make it into a halter.
Swapped out the white buttons for tan buttons.

I cut the collar down it’s middle, cut off 1 inch and then sewed it back together.
Took in the back seam by 1 inch at the top and down to 1/2 inch in the middle.
To finish things off I added tan bias tape along the arm holes and the back of my
dress top.
I sewed a casing for elastic on the bottom half of the dress. Fed through elastic
that was measured to my waist. (Trust me, with the pleats it was NOT an easy task,
actually quite annoying)!
Lastly, I sewed my blue halter top to my pleated dress bottom to make a whole new
dress!

Accessories:

For the last month I have been saying to myself that I am going to sew a tote to
cart my stuff off of our boat and to the pool area. When we are at our boat I always
have my hands full of chapstick, sunscreen, sunglasses, magazines so I really needed
a small tote with organized slots for all of my stuff. I just haven’t found the
time, until now! I took a reusable wine tote from the grocery store and hand sewed
it into a small purse (luckily for me it was blue!) I used fabric paint to paint a
damask print in blue. I also wrapped the handles with brown and blue ribbon!

Remember these wedge heels from my Tunic Challenge? Whelp, I snipped off the button
I sewed on and began again. I drew a tie dye design with a blue sharpie, squirted
rubbing alcohol onto my design to make it all blend together and let it dry in the
sun.

Happy Refashioning!!!

Marisa”

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Susan from Second Chances By Susan

“Of all the challenges, I feel that the ones that have to do with a certain color
seem to be the most challenging. As soon as you walk into a thrift store, a very
large percentage of the clothing is eliminated from consideration due to the fact
that its the wrong color. Fortunately, though, Riverside lends itself well to faded
denim and that’s a little easier to come by.

My refashion actually started this week when I found a whole tub of leather items in
storage that I had kind of forgotten about. I like to buy up leather items when I
can find them on $2.00 Thursdays. I pulled from the tub a very soft black leather
coat that was rather large on me, but had possibilities. I immediately envisioned
adding some faded denim panels to the coat, so off I went to the thrift store.
While I was there, I also found a blue chiffon dress. The roses were the right
shade of Riverside, and the background color reminded me of another color in the
Pantone fall pallette, Airy Blue. On a different trip, I found a darker blue lace
top, and a small leather purse. I was now ready to get sewing!

I detached the lining from the coat and carefully cut away the leather front and
side/back panels from the coat. I used the cut pieces as a pattern for the denim
inserts, cutting extra around the edges for seam allowance.

Before I cut the denim, though, I consulted the RIT Dye color chart and found that
by mixing 1 tsp. of Evening Blue, and 1 tsp. of Denim blue in a quart of water, I
could get Riverside blue. And, lucky me, I just happened to have both colors in my
cupboard! So I dipped my denim jumper in a dye bath, then rinsed and dried it
before cutting my pieces. It didn’t change the color drastically, but it did deepen
the shade a bit and I liked that.

Before adding the denim panels to the coat, I added new pockets with welts.

I took in the sides, reshaped the shoulders, added belt loops, and made a belt from
the leftover denim and leather.

For the dress, I needed something to put under the lace since I didn’t want it to be
see-thru. I found a simple t-shirt and began with that. I cut away part of the
bodice, including the sleeves. I then deconstructed them, covered them with the
lace, and put them back together.

I cut a round collar from the leather. I used the portion of t-shirt that was left
after cutting away the bodice/sleeve pieces and used it as a pattern for the bodice
of the chiffon dress, adding extra for seam allowance. I retained the original hem
of the dress. After a lot of pinning and fitting to my dress form, I was finally
able to sew it all together. I added some leather trim around the bodice/sleeve
pieces.

I attached a loop and button at the back of the neckline.

The design detail on the purse was something I had originally wanted to do either on
the back, or around the bottom of the coat. After careful consideration, though, I
didn’t want to limit what I could wear the coat with, so I decided to put the design
element on a purse instead.

Since I didn’t have enough leather to make a purse, I decided to refashion one. I
layered a piece of leather over the right side of some of the denim. After cutting
my design from paper, I traced around it onto the leather with a chalk paint pen. I
stitched the design, wiped away the chalk pen markings, then carefully cut away the
leather, exposing the denim beneath. I then lined the purse flap, turned it right
side out and secured it to the purse. In doing so, the layers of leather and denim
were too much for my machine, so I punched holes across the top edge of the purse,
and the top edge of my new flap and “stitched” them together with a running stitch
using thin strips of leftover leather.

If you would like to see more details of the process, you can visit my blog, Second
Chances by Susan, where I will be posting the tutorial soon. Thanks!

This has been a fun challenge and a fun competition! I can’t believe we are at the
end! Thanks again to everyone who has had a hand in this…Beth, the sponsors, the
ladies in the competition, and the ladies sewing along. And, thanks to everyone who
has voted and left sweet comments of encouragement…it means a lot! Good luck to
each of the contestants, they are all so very talented!”

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Now it’s your turn to vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced next Saturday, September 10.

Click on the name and then be sure to scroll to the bottom and click vote so your vote will be counted.

Thanks for voting!!