What am I Wearing Wednesday – Black tube dress

What am I Wearing Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

Thanks everyone for bearing with me as I make a few changes to the blog, mostly the addition of new content. As always, though, it will always be relevant to anyone who wants to live the champagne life on a beer budget. Or Diet Coke, whichever you prefer!

I’ve mentioned previously that I am a poor newlywed college student and that comes with many demands, oddly enough, on my wardrobe! I’m expected to:

• dress “like a young professional” while I’m teaching my classes as a graduate student
• dress for my on-campus job
• dress casually while in class
• dress for performances {choir dress is ugly and uniform, other choir dress is our choice but black and formal}
• dress for other performances {something like “Sunday Best”} during the day time
• dress for recitals {ball gowns}
• dress for auditions and job interviews
• dress up to meet the inlaws
• dress up to go to church
• dress appropriately for professional rehearsals
• dress for dates with the Hubby!
• casual outfits
• dress for the gym or the pool
• dress for girls nights

Sure, sure. Some of these are unique to my major {I don’t think pre-meds or business majors need a closet full of ball-gowns} but many of these are real needs for college students and other young wives! And how am I supposed to accommodate all these demands on a newlywed’s budget? Especially since many college towns don’t have H&M or other places to buy cheap clothes, and the options drop to almost nil when you include the Tall & Curvy Factor! Dress pants are high-waters on me! Appropriate length skirts are NOT appropriate on this body! Nice blouses aren’t supposed to show the bottom of my belly button, right? And yes, I do buy my pants online, on-sale for $30 a piece. I own two pairs of black pants. Boring. And even when I order online there is no guarantee that they’ll be tall enough, wide enough in the hips, and are rarely quality products. Not worth it!

So what’s a girl to do?

Make her own clothes!

Admittedly, this outfit is a bit simplistic but it fulfills several roles. I wore it to work on Monday. I’ve paired it with a black cardigan and worn it as my “Black Dress” to performances. I’ve worn it to teach in. And the creation is so easy it’s almost criminal! In fact, you’ve seen something similar from me once before.

Sorry that the image is so bad. My husband took with my iPhone before I downloaded the Camera+ app that makes all iPhone pictures better.

All you have to do to make one for yourself is:

1. Get a length of fabric that wraps 1 1/2 times around your body. $5 with coupon
2. Fold it in half “hamburger-style.”
3. Sew together the two cut edges.
4. Cut a length of elastic to fit around your chest, just under your underarms. $0.75
5. Sew that length into a loop or a circle.
6. Sew it onto the “ugly” side of the fabric, 1 inch below the top of the dress, using the zig zag stitch.
7. Flip it right-side-out.
8. Wear it!

Normally I’ll have step-by-step pictures, but I made this dress 6 months ago.

For this outfit I’ve paired it with a red cardigan and a belt. Had I thought about it, I’d also be wearing a necklace, but sometimes when you’re running late to work you have to forgo the final touches.

Dress: $5.75 Homemade
Cardigan: $30 from Lane Bryant {one of my last retail-price purchases}
Belt: $5 from Eloquii’s going out of business sale

Outfit total: $40.75

Thanks for joining me today!

What article of clothing have you sewn for yourself lately and how have you used it?

Refashion Plus – Maxi dress with cardigan and belt

What’s so wrong with being “Plus Sized”? Someone tell me, because I genuinely want to know. And don’t tell me that plus sized women are lazy and out of shape and it’s dangerous for our health, because any amount of research will tell you that what’s dangerous for our health is mostly our genetically modified, nutritionally voided food. Also I can bench 100 lbs. and will probably throw you over a wall just to prove how “Lazy and out of shape” I am not. Seriously, I have guns and curves. I can flex my pecs and shimmy with the best of them. I’m maxed out about 1/4 of the leg machines at my gym but still have “thunder thighs.” And I like the way I look. So why doesn’t the fashion industry like me? I would buy their clothes if they fit me!

To be fair, 90% of the battle is that at 6-feet tall, I’m too tall. And when you combine tall and curvy, the fashion industry thinks that equals frumpy. Just so we all know, I AM NOT a frumpy person. I’m not even thirty! I am such a long way from “Frump” that to be presented with neutral colored high-water peasant skirts is insulting. So sayonara fashion industry. Arrivederci ugly, ill-fitting clothing! I will see you on the other side of my sewing machine!

While I’m still getting my office set up (Creation within a newlywed’s apartment: Step 1) I will be sharing with you some of my previous creations. Today I have for you what I’m wearing to work. I’m warning you now, I am NOT photogenic and my hubby is still getting used to working with my junky camera.

A while back I was shopping at Joann’s, my town’s ONLY fabric store, and I came across some fabric on their sale table that caught my eye. It was $2/yd so I bought 2 yards for $4 (yay math!) and took my new lovely fabric home.

Sorry for the awkward folding but isn’t that gorgeous!!! I love the way the browns and black work together next to the blue. So what did I do with this fabric to fit a tall and curvy frame? {For all my future work I promise I’ll have step-by-step pictures like everyone else. I made this dress a while ago and it was my first adventure in sewing clothes since about 2007.}

First, I folded it, front-sides facing each other, with the cut edges together. I sewed that side shut with a straight stitch and then secured it with a zig-zag stitch. I threw it over my body really quick to see what it was going to look like.  I looked like I was in a giant, colorful potato sack with the bottom cut off.

I then folded over the top, leaving enough room to thread the elastic through later, and sewed it almost all the way around. I left about 2 inches open by which to feed the elastic through. The elastic came from a set of wicker baskets we got from the wedding. There were two long pieces of elastic holding the biggest wicker hamper shut and there were 4 smaller wicker baskets inside of it. When I got this amazing gift (Yay Bed Bath and Beyond Wedding registry!) I just saved the elastic that came with the packaging. Hooray for free elastic!

I threaded the elastic through using the old Two-Safety Pin method: Pin one end of the elastic to the opening of the whole. Use the second safety pin to fold over the other end of the elastic. This makes it bulky enough to shove through the fabric tunnel. When the elastic came out the other side, I sewed the two ends together and called it DONE!

When I wear this I always pair it with a cardigan and a belt. It’s my firm belief that ladies with curves should wear belts around the smallest parts of their waist to emphasize their shape. And this is how it wore it today!

This is really a terrible picture because it makes me look short and jawline-less. But really I get a ton of compliments on this dress. And notice how it goes down to the floor instead of being awkward high-water ankle length. This picture also doesn’t do it justice because the fabric is billowy and not tight in the awkward areas lots of maxi dresses are. AKA no panty lines or butt clinging!

Outfit total:Dress: $4 total – DIY
Cardigan – Lane Bryant $30
Gladiator Sandals – Torrid from forever ago
Belt – Lane Bryant – $15 on sale.

Refashion Plus

Are you familiar with this woman?

Jillian the Refashionista

If not then, oh my goodness, you should be! This woman is incredible. She takes some of the most hideous clothes you wish you’d never seen in your local thrift shop and turns them into amazingly wearable outfits! Every outfit she makes gets worn once by her, then donated to Revente’s Last Call where all profits go to the Women’s Shelter.

How awesome is that!

I’ve been following her blog the Refashionista for about a year now and have begun searching for plus sized refashioning blogs with minimal success. Standing at 6-foot-nuthin’, the majority of the clothing in stores is simply too short. I’m also curvy (buxom, voluptuous, curvaceous) and the trends in fashion favor the lithe and slender. But all bodies are good bodies and I simply want to clothe mine without feeling like my goodies are going to fall out and I’d love to include you on my journey. Therefore, I will be rearranging my home-office to better serve my sewing and refashioning needs and will be posting pictures of my creations! Check back soon for pictures and such!