Secretary Kaitlyn

Another set of photos from last week. Wednesday, Kaitlyn came over and we completed an entire outfit! Her show is fast approaching, February 3rd, and we have a lot of work still ahead of us.

This shirt originally had long sleeves and brown buttons. We'd cut the sleeves short the day before and Kaitlyn's sewing homework was hemming the sleeves, also to add elastic to make the edges gathered. She hemmed them but needed my help to properly add the elastic.

Taking an oversized thrifted turquoise blouse, Kaitlyn cut long 5" strips of fabric, sewed them together, and created a long tie to sew onto the collar. She pinned the exact center to the center back and top stitched it on the top and bottom. She used the buttons from that same blouse and changed out the original ones. Crazy how something so small as the color of the buttons gives this old blouse new life!

Nerd alert! Kaitlyn trying on some of my old prescription glasses from college.

The skirt. Thrifted. Kaitlyn didn't like that the hem was a few inches longer in the back than in the front. She wanted to hem it all the way around and make it level. But instead of all that work cutting and sewing, I helped her add three pickups, similar to the "over bustle" I sew at work all the time. I simply found the center back of the skirt, and pinned up the exact difference in length from the front and back. I added two other pickups on either side of that. It makes the skirt so much more feminine. Kaitlyn took the skirt to her machine and did a small stitch where it was pinned to secure the pickups.

Lastly, she took the collar from the turquoise blouse and top stitched it to the front of the skirt. It was just the right length. It gave the skirt it some color and tied it in with the top a little more. The end result, a fun, flirty secretary look!

Kaitlyn's on her way over now for another sewing lesson today! I think we'll work on sleeved turquoise linen dress. I think it will be a similar recon to our first outfit. And she's bringing me a surprise. I'm dying to know what it is!

While she works on her outfits, I'll be working on my new winter coat I bought at Salvation Army on Saturday for $8. It's purple wool with a velvet Peter Pan collar and a velvet bow on the backside. It's beautiful! The sleeves were a little short, so I bought a black velvet blazer to cut up and use to lengthen the sleeves. Pictures later today or tomorrow!

I'll also be working on this dress, trying to make it wearable again. It's beautifully hideous! I have so far removed the sleeves and added regular spaghetti straps. I might shorten it a few inches. I love how it has a slight train in the back, so I'll take it up the same all the way around to keep that. And that bow! It's fantastic! That will definitely stay. I think it needs another color other than blue. Any suggestions?