It’s so much fun for me to watch behind the scenes as thousands of people vote for their favorite refashions during Refashion Runway. This week has been, by far, the most interesting week in Refashion Runway’s voting history. At least six of our contestants were in first place at one time or another during the week. And believe it not, at one point, the top six places were only one vote away from each other. And then to make matters even more interesting, the judges’ scores were super close, too. We ended up with the first three-way tie for first place in Refashion Runway history.
So congratulations to the top three winners this week!
Unfortunately, I’m so sad to say that we are going to have to say “see you later” to Kathy from Household How To. It’s been fun having you this season, your energy and enthusiasm is quite contagious.
Thank you so much for sewing with us this season, Kathy, I hope you had fun!
Before she goes, let’s take a look at the cute clutch she made from a t-shirt for this week’s challenge.
She started with this t-shirt…
and created this…
So cute, Kathy!
She was ahead of the game and had already sent in her maxi dress/skirt refashion so let’s take a look at that too.
We’ll miss you and we’d like to send you off with a couple of nice prizes for all of your hard work.
I’ve never seen such a close race in Refashion Runway history.
Today is the last day to vote for your favorite gingham refashion. If you haven’t had a chance to check out all of the wonderful gingham transformations, and cheer on your favorite contestant by voting, today is the day.
We have another celebrity sewing along with us this week!
Susan, from Second Chances by Susan, was the winner of Season Two of Refashion Runway and I am seriously in love with Susan’s gingham dress refashion!
So simple, yet so dramatic!
Thanks for sharing with us, Susan!
***
Tory Sonstroem sewed along with us again this week. She has inspired me to make some gingham bias tape. (You can find out how to make your own bias tape here.)
So cute, Tory! Thanks for sharing with us!
***
Brandy Whitfield sewed along with us this week, too. She told me this was a difficult challenge for her, but she stepped out of her box and completed it anyway.
Thanks, Brandy!
***
If you are sewing along with the Refashion Runway challenges but aren’t competing as a contestant, you can still send your pictures to me at bhunting@eoni.com and I’ll post them. We love seeing what you are creating, too. At the end of the competition, I’ll send a copy of my book, The Refashion Handbook to one lucky person who sewed along with us this season.
The Gingham Challenge voting ends tomorrow night at midnight. If you haven’t had a chance to vote for your favorite yet, click HERE.
A few of the contestants felt uncomfortable scoring each other so we decided to relieve them of that responsibility and get some former Refashion Runway Stars to be the judges instead. The scoring stays the same. Half of the score is from your on-line votes and the other half is from the judges scores.
Meet the new highly-qualified judges:
From Refashion Runway: Season One, it’s Mary Peterson from Mary’s Thrifty Chic
From Refashion Runway: Season One, it’s Barbara Carlon from Zibergirl Sews
Here I am getting off the plane last weekend in my gingham sew-along.
I WISH!
Isn’t she gorgeous in her gingham dress?!
So classy. Right up there with Brigitte Bardo, Jackie O. and Audrey Hepburn rockin’ their gingham.
And so is my friend, Linda “gettin’ her gingham on” in these refashioned shorts. (Be sure to notice the shoes, too. Aren’t they great!)
Linda found a pair of too-small, but very well made gingham shorts. She solved the size issue by taking off the waistband, adding an embroidered-floral insert at the sides and a wide black elastic at the top. She even added the waistband to a cute top she had. She didn’t waste a thing.
I love this!
Carissa from Carissa Knits sewed along with us this week and knocked it out of the park again with her amazing dress refashion.
I love how she saved the Ralph Lauren tag. And that bias trim! Oh La La!
Delain Miller refashioned this gingham shirt into a cute apron this week.
Vicky Meyers sent in a cute floral and stripe refashion sew along. You can see more on her blog, Vicky Meyers Creations.
If you sewed along with us this week feel free to send in your sew-along to bhunting@eoni.com
It’s all over the runways, like this great gingham number by Diane Von Furstenberg.
Isn’t it beautiful!!! I just love everything about it. So sophisticated, yet playful and ageless. Now that’s a powerhouse combo in my book. Nothing Daisy Duke about this dress. No Sirree Bob!
I do have a newfound love for gingham and our contestants this week have really stepped up to the plate and given us some really creative solutions to this challenge.
I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have a hard time voting again, believe you me!
“Hi All, I’m so excited, AGAIN, to see what everyone else has come up with
for this week’s challenge 🙂 I don’t own any gingham (or haven’t since I
was at primary school) so this was an interesting project for me…I think
I spent FAR too much time on the research front, before actually getting
down to business!
I found a very large pink gingham men’s shirt in a local charity shop, and
also white lace ladies top…
With some chopping here and there… (and Rod helping a paw, as usual…)
I created some bias binding from the arm of the men’s shirt…
and added it to the bodice of the ‘new’ dress…
I changed the buttons from masculine to feminine… (with a pink button to
finish off the placket a little differently…)
then added the lace from the other top…
I was nearly done! To the park for some After pics… If you’ve never been
to Marble Hill Park, it’s very near Richmond – and it’s a beautiful setting
(I’ve been many times to walk Roddie). With a waterfront to watch the
rowing boats down the Thames, and Marble Hill House, a little cafe, and
plenty of play areas (for adults and kids!), I can easily lose a day
there…
“I started off with a 3X purple gingham scrubs top that I found for .99 cents. I
NEVER spend more than .99 cents on my refashions. It’s my rule and personal
challenge!
Using an existing dress (another refashion of mine) as a pattern, I cut
the scrub to size and shortened the length.
I serged the new side edges…
To spice
things up a bit, I used a negligee that I bought solely for the lace and made some
sleeves ( I’m slightly obsessed with lace…).
I also wanted to break up the gingham
a bit. I did not use a pattern. I cut the cap of the sleeve free-hand (I’ve sewn
enough sleeves to be comfortable with that).
To tie the gingham and lace together, I
harvested the bias tape from the original scrub sleeve, and added it to the hem of
my new lace sleeve.
To finish everything off, I made an easy sash with the leftover
side scraps, and I used my sewing machine to finish the bottom raw edge with a
rolled hem.
It was blazing hot for the first time in Indiana all year long; go figure. Hence,
the indoor pics :)”
“Well, this dress has been hanging in my closet since mid-highschool. But
since I was 20-30 pounds less than now, it fit me ok and managed to cover
everything, tee-hee! Now not so much! Because my thigh area seems to have
gotten bigger, it’s stretching the length hence dragging it up.
Because of my unhealthy obsession with stripes, plaid, gingham, etc. this
dress is something I just don’t want to lose as a piece of clothing. I’ve
worn it as a tunic top a couple of times but it missed that Wow that I
search in all my clothes. Soooo, Sylvia to the rescue!
I decided on a peplum top. I cut the length below the zipper and cut it
halfway once more into two strips of material in order to have more for the
peplum pleats. Once I sewed the peplum on, it still missed the Wow so I
decided to add a front lace insert from some leftover lace scraps.
May I just tell you that the girls from the office at my company asked me
which boutique I got it from. WOW!”
“For the gingham challenge, I got this men’s XXL shirt because of the
beautiful mint color. I instantly had an image pop in my head of making it
into a short crop top with a high-waisted skirt for my little girl.
BEFORE:
After:
I used the front of the shirt as the back, with the buttons on the back of
the top and the skirt. I made it very simple in the front and with the
pleated back that already came with the shirt, I think it looks adorable in
the middle front.
I pretty much used every part of the fabric, I even used the collar I cut
off as a headband! Turns out, the length of the collar fits perfectly
around my girls head and with the button and the button hole on both sides,
you close the button and there you have it! Easiest headband ever.
*What you’ll need*:
-An oversized button-up shirt
-1 1/2″ width elastic
-matching thread
-needle or sewing machine
-scissors
*Estimated time*: 2 hours
*Budget*: $18
*Skill level*: A confident beginner to an intermediate
Head on over to my blog to see the tutorial on how I made the XXL men’s
shirt into a girls crop top + skirt set!
“I started with this adorable prom dress (I really hated to take this apart, but
sacrifices needed to be made) and a pair of gingham pajama pants.
And one more piece…this ruffly white strapless top!
My 1st plan of action was to take apart the gingham pajama pants and sew it into a
skirt.
2nd I removed the ruffle from my strapless top. Then I added some homemade gingham
bias tape and fabric to the front of the top. Of course I changed the buttons too!
(Secretly I am a button addict). Once that was done I attached my new skirt bottom
and top together.
3rd I removed the bottom tulle layer from the prom dress to give my new dress some
pouf!”
“This little dress started life as a duvet. When I found it at Goodwill I HAD to
have it (never mind that I didn’t know what I would do with it).
This twin size duvet was enough fabric to make TWO dresses! If I had used a pattern
(instead of winging it) I would have wasted less material, but I got 2 size 16
dresses, so it all worked out!
Because I was more or less winging it, I cut the back WAY too small. Short on
fabric I improvised and made a shirred panel in the back so that the dress would
fit.
Shirred back panel – Thank you elastic thread!
You can see the step by step
tutorial, PLUS a tutorial on shirring
here.
This dress was SO MUCH fun to make and is even more fun to wear. She’s moved past
her days as a boring bedspread and now she’s fully out in the world!”
“It was so fun to see everyone’s incredible work last week, I kept checking
over and over again until the post was up. I get so excited to see the
creativity. This is such a great competition!
I went to 4 thrift stores until I finally found this gingham t-shirt
dress. I was relieved to finally find something that was gingham and
workable–way harder than I thought it would be.
My vision was to create a cute button up. Since the buttons didn’t go all
the way down, I was limited on how far I could take the side seams in. I
decided to use shirring for the first time. It was so much easier than
expected and made the top look fitted, while still allowing me to pull it
over my head. I also removed the sleeves so I could take up the underarm,
as well as the sleeves. This helped to tailor the top to my body.
I wanted to do something a little more creative, so I used the excess fabric to make three bow ties, a standard tie-on for my husband, a clip-on for my oldest, and a sewn-on for my baby. This was a lot harder than I expected, but I loved how it turned out!
I also made this short video to show the before and after in 3D just for
kicks.”
***
Now it’s YOUR turn.
Vote for your favorite gingham creation below. After you click on the button next to your favorite, be sure to go all the way to the bottom of the poll and click vote.Otherwise your vote won’t be counted.
So many great transformations to choose from. And I totally agree with so many of you when you say it was a tough choice!
It was such a close race this week.
I’m excited to announce that Kara from While Camden Sleeps is the winner of the Floral and Geometric/Stripe Challenge. Kara has posted the details of how she created this beautiful dress over at her site. I hope you get a chance to head over there and check it out. Plus, she has loads of other beautiful transformations to inspire you. You will love her site.
Wow!
Thanks, Kara, for inspiring us this week!
***
Now, excuse me while I get my box of tissues, because I love every part of this competition except this part.
Seriously, I have no idea how Heidi Klum does it each week without a bunch of blubbering. I’d be a mess.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I really HATE good-byes. I never say “good-bye” it’s always, “See you later”. Good-bye just seems so final to me.
But today, we have to say “see you later” to one of our talented seamstresses.
I’m sorry to say that Irene from Give the Cat a Name is leaving us this week, but it’s definitely not good-bye. It’s just “see you later”. I hope you’ll all subscribe to her site and keep up on all of her wonderful posts in the sewing/refashion world.
Before we send her off, let’s take a look at her beautiful gingham refashion for this week.
She started off with this ill-fitting slightly dowdy dress.
And turned it into this sophisticated, curve-hugging beauty.
Thank you SO much for sharing your creative energy with us, Irene. It’s been fun getting to know you!
But we don’t want you to go home empty handed. No. We. Don’t.
We want to send you off with one of Anny’s beautiful bags from It’s Sew Anny.
If you aren’t actually competing in Refashion Runway but you would still like to sew along with each challenge, we’d love to see your creations, too. Send your photos to me at bhunting@eoni.com and I’ll post them so we can all see what you’ve made. At the end of the season, one lucky sew along seamstress will win a copy of my book, The Refashion Handbook.
Carissa wowed us in Season Two with her amazing refashions and she’s back sewing along with us today. I love her colorful take on the floral and geometric/stripes challenge. Thanks for taking the time to sew along with us , Carissa! Check out her post here.
Next is Tory Sonstroem who sewed along with us this week, too. She
borrowed design concepts from Michelle Paganini’s current work with thrift
store button down shirts. And she’s looking forward to the gingham challenge next!
She started with these button down shirts.
And created this:
Great job Tory! Thanks for sewing along this week!
Brandy Whitfield sent us her sew along this week. Her tunic is made from the bottom of a t-shirt and the bottom of a dress. She’s only been refashioning for about a year.
Cute! Thanks for sewing along!
Delain Miller combined a shirt and a sweater for a whole new look.
Thanks Delain!
Here is the challenge schedule for those of you who would like to sew along:
Week One: Combine Floral and Geometric or Stripes
Week Two: Gingham
Week Three: Handbag, Tote bag or Clutch
Week Four: Maxi Skirt or Dress
Week Five: Boho Chic
Week Six: Asymmetrical
And today is your last chance to vote for your favorite Floral and Geometric/Stripe refashion contestant. Click here to vote. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post to the voting box, click on your favorite then scroll down and click the vote button. Once you click the vote button, your vote will be counted.
Thanks for voting!!!
Stay tuned for tomorrow when the winner of the first challenge will be announced.
A big thank you to everyone who stepped up to be a Refashion Runway: Season Three Prize Sponsor! They have been so kind to donate so we can all enjoy this friendly sewing competition. I hope you have time to visit their sites and give them some of your business.
It’s not too late to be a sponsor so if you’d like to support the creative efforts of our contestants by donating a prize or gift certificate, just email me at bhunting@eoni.com.
Jennifer over at Wawak Sewing has graciously donated a $50.00 gift certificate for one of our lucky competitors.
Wild Ginger Software offers a variety of software products for fashion design, home sewing and crafts, and educators and students in fashion design and theatrical costuming. Lisa has been so kind to donate a Pattern Master of choice to one of the creative contestants.
The Fat Quarter Shop has beautiful fabrics and they were so kind to donate a $50.00 gift certificate for one of our lucky competitors.
Barbara at Lekala Sewing Patterns has donated 10 free patterns. Only 4 are measurements needed to get a perfect fit. And the
downloadable patterns are emailed to you within minutes
Mary at Younique has graciously donated a prize package of 3D mascara, lip gloss, and eyeliner, plus a cosmetic bag. A $60 value!!!
I’ve also got a pile of Joann gift cards to hand out to these hardworking and creative women.
Also, Anny from It’s Sew Anny contacted me today and would like to give one of her beautiful bags to a lucky winner, too.
There are several more prize sponsors in the works and I’ll post their links as soon as I get them.
Thanks again everyone for sponsoring this friendly sewing competition, we couldn’t do it without you!
If you haven’t had a chance to vote for your favorite refashion this week, be sure to head over here and vote. The voting ends on Friday night at midnight. When you vote, be sure to click on your favorite, then scroll down to the bottom of the box and click on the vote button. Otherwise your vote won’t be counted. Thanks so much for being so supportive of this friendly sewing competition. 🙂
What do they have to do with each other? One seems so random and colorful and the other so linear and black and white. What was she thinking when she made this one of the challenges?!
But flowers are examples of sacred geometry in it’s finest form.
Can you see it?
My good friend Linda, an avid gardener and lover of all things botanical would start spouting off the names of each of these beautiful flowers. She’d lovingly tell you where they grow and where to plant them in your garden.
My good friend Judy, an engineer and lover of all things math, would look at these flowers and actually get excited about the angles and start using words like geometry, mathematical ratios, proportions, and harmonics.
This challenge is dedicated to my two good friends, Judy and Linda. Both girls so different, they live thousands of miles away from each other and they’ve never even met. But I know when I do get these two girls together, something wonderful will happen.
Just like what happened when these eight creative women combined florals with geometric or stripes this week. I love how they all interpreted this challenge and I know you will, too.
Be sure to vote for your favorite at the bottom of this post. The voting will be open until Friday, July 31 at midnight.
“Hello readers of The Renegade Seamstress! My name is Sarah Tyau and I am so
honored to be in this challenge this week along with the other talented
seamstresses! I don’t consider myself an advanced seamstress but a between
a beginner to an intermediate level so I was a little intimidated but I
took on this challenge so that I can motivate myself to sew a project every
week and to hopefully stretch my skills a little further. Let’s get right
to the project!
A XXL women’s shirt into a little girls dress w/ tulip pockets
BEFORE:
my son refused to move away so a picture with him it is! I’ve learned to
choose my battles and also think to myself, “Will this matter in the end on
my deathbed?” That is how I survive motherhood. 🙂
Right when I saw this XXL women’s shirt at a thrift store for $5(it still
had the tags on, don’t you love when that happens?), I had an image pop
automatically in my head and and started on the project hoping it would
execute just the way I imagined.
AFTER:
Since the theme is stripes & floral, I thought it’d be cute to add tulip
design pockets for the floral. And guess who decided to join in on the
photo shoot again?
“This dress is actually a nightgown. Since I’m always trying to get away
with wearing pajamas in public anyway, I knew it was a match made in
heaven.
I wanted to accentuate the embroidery since part of the challenge
is incorporating floral. I originally planned to go over it by hand with
black thread, but then lazy/efficient Kara had an epiphany–Sharpie. Yep,
I basically colored over the original thread with permanent marker and it made it look just like it had been done in black. Awesome. I also removed
the netting pieces, and the center of the original collar.
The dress needed a more flattering shape, and I needed more length after an
over-ambitious chop. The solution? The thick waistband in the center. It
gathers the fabric at the waist, visually narrowing my frame, while also
adding about an inch and a half of length. Please note that the waistband
is sewn to the bodice and the skirt separately, as I had previously cut
them apart.
Finally, to add the geometric/stripe aspect of the challenge, I used some
old bias tape to create eye-catching stripes at the bottom in a
coordinating black color that tied the ensemble together.
And just like that, I was done.”
“I was so stunned to find out I was in this series, completely floored!
And given the talent that is here this year, I’m both grateful – and
inspired… Stripes and florals had me scratching my head (don’t even get
me started on geometrics!) – but whatever happens, I’m pleased I’ve ended
up with something I’ll actually wear. Excited to see everyone else’s!!
One stripy dress, plus one floral dress, both from my stash, made from
stretchy lycra mix fabric, looked like the could fit the bill for this
challenge…
I used the bottom half of the stripy dress for the top, using
the black side panels to make trim to edge the top, and create a bow (which
can also be tied behind the neck). The floral dress converted into a skirt
with a little shaping, and an added elasticated waist. Now all I need is
the right weather to wear it!! The Great British Summer, as unpredictable
as ever!”
“I have a rule about mixing patterns: if one of the patterns is busy and
bright, keep the other simple and subtle. The t-shirt which I had for years
and never really liked has a busy striped pattern so it found a great
companionship with a thrifted cotton skirt donning a subtle floral pattern
and loose waistband whose elastic has gone rogue.
The end result is a comfortable and dignified summer dress that has 90s
vibe written all over it, so dress the part I did. I’m really loving how
cute this turned out!”
“I started off with an oversized floral
shirt that I got for .99 cents. I cut off the sleeves, collar, and band and used the
rest of the material to make 4″ long strips. I used purple floral scraps from an
unfinished refashion and also cut those into 4″ strips. I basically quilted the
white and purple floral strips together into one big piece of fabric. I cut THAT
fabric into various different angles and sewed them together in different directions
to create a geometric pattern. With the help of my homemade dressform I sewed it all
together to create a completely asymmetric tunic.”
“Never, never, never in a million years would I have combined stripes and flowers.
It’s just not who I imagine myself to be! But alas, I’m in this challenge and I
want to win and so I gave it a shot!
I was torn between this prairie dress and a basic black and white flower skirt. I
figure “in you’re going to challenge yourself really do it!” So I chose the dress
that I liked the least and decided to turn it into something I could love and wear.
I’m thrilled with how she turned out! Dusty Rose (my name for her) has truly
blossomed!
Wow, so now is your chance to vote for your favorite. The winner of the Floral and Geometric or Stripes challenge will be announced next Saturday.
Use the poll below to vote for your favorite Floral and Geometric or Stripes Refashion:
***
A big thank you to all of these creative women and to all of you who have volunteered to be prize sponsors. If you’d still like to sponsor a prize for this season, email me at bhunting@eoni.com. We’d love to have you!
If you are new to The Renegade Seamstress, here is a link to my refashion tutorials:
The Renegade Seamstress 
