Thursday Thrift Score: Blazers, Part IX

Things to be thankful for this week:

1. My brand spankin' new camera - Nothing super fancy. I'm not a professional photographer or anything. But it sure beats the old camera phone. I'm still playing around with it, exploring its features, but I can already tell we're gonna be besties!

2. My brand spankin' new tripod - Together with my new camera's self-timer, this frees me up from waiting for my husband to get home to take pics. He loves not having to take pictures, and I love not having to hear him groan about taking pictures. Win-win!

3. My $5 thrifted blazer - Teal is one of my favorite colors, and there's something about corduroy that's makes me feel very... collegiate. I should be sitting under a tree reading Emily Bronte, no? In fact, I'm considering adding leather elbow patches. And those so-ugly-they're-cute fake leather buttons? Yeah, I totally love to hate those, but the blazer just wouldn't have the same feel without them.

Sunday Sew-Day: Blazers, Part VIII

This blazer was... interesting. I spotted it at the end of the night at last fall's clothes swap. No one had taken it yet, and it's obvious why. My husband's first comment upon seeing it was "It's never too late to begin a career in clowning."

But the colors are beautiful, and the fabric is a lovely silk/linen blend.

So I decided to bring it home with me and ask it what it wanted to be when it grew up. The answer it eventually gave, after much quiet contemplation and staring at one another, was "a skirt". The bright, bold pattern has a bit of a 60s mod vibe, so let's run with that.

Thursday Thrift Score: Blazers, Part VII

My college roommate has a thing for velvet blazers, so this week's thrift score is dedicated to her. Last year, I picked up this super soft and comfy jacket for around $5 at one of my favorite stores, Thrift City in Richardson, TX. Its deep raspberry color is perfect for autumn and winter, but could last well into spring if paired with a little floral dress or maybe a graphic black and white print.

There are two small side straps to make it a bit more fitted if necessary.

It even has these tiny little grommets under the arms for ventilation since velvet can be a touch on the warm side.

Hurray! Another thrift store find that needs no alterations!

Blazers, Part VI

Sunday's inclement weather delayed my return from a weekend road trip, and yesterday my photograhusband didn't get home from work until after dark. I swear, I really am trying to maintain a schedule. It just seems like every week something else gets in the way. Eesh!

Anywho, last Thursday I showed you how this piece began - as a thrift score on a much heavier Carissa, purchased for $5 at Goodwill with the original $165 Nordstrom tag still attached!

But since it no longer fits, it's time to make some changes!

Thursday Thrift Score: Blazers, Part V

This week's Thrift Score includes a bonus Throw Back Thursday, as well as a teaser for my next Sunday Sew-Day. What a deal!

So here's the throw back part. May 2012: I was a third of the way into my weight loss, but hadn't yet discovered the world of refashioning. I picked up this blazer for $5 at my local Goodwill. It fit, it flattered, and it still had the original Nordstrom price tag for $164.99 - qualifying it as a thrift score as well.

Now, roughly 50 pounds lighter, it no longer fits, it no longer flatters, and it would no longer be considered a "score". Time to make some changes! Tune in on Sunday to see what I've got up my refashioned sleeve!

Blazers, Part IV

Hello, kiddies! I beat the sun home from work today and was able to take pics of the blazer-turned-skirt before it got dark. But let's start from the beginning, shall we? On Sunday, I showed you my jumping off point: a perfectly good, though slightly too large blazer. About halfway through my weight loss, I picked up this bad boy for about $10 at Tuesday Morning.

It's a decent quality wool blend in a beautiful pale pink and chocolate brown herringbone weave. And believe it or not, I'm going to turn it into a skirt.

Confessions

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew. Sometimes I get myself in way too deep. Sometimes I am far too ambitious in my sewing endeavors, particularly my time allotments.

My next blazer refashion was going to be this pale pink and chocolate brown herringbone tweed number. Originally, I planned to swap out the sleeves for some leather ones, add leather details on the collar and pocket flaps maybe, and call it a day. All week, I'd been surfing Pinterest, pinning tweed-leather-combo jackets. All of them were lovely, and most of them had a boxy Chanel-ish vibe going on. That's all well and good, but my refashionable blazer had lots of darts for shaping and a slightly flared pseudo peplum - not at all the right shape to do a Chanel copycat.

Then, Saturday morning, I had an epiphany: who says a blazer has to be a blazer? Why not a skirt? Tweed skirts are cute and classic, and I could work in that peplum. And then my tweed skirt would have pockets too, and if you haven't caught on by now, I loves me some skirts and dresses with pockets. "A skirt it shall be!", I proclaimed (but not aloud because that would be weird).

This is where that confession comes into play. I could totally disassemble a blazer and reconstruct it into a skirt in two days, right? With a friend coming over for dinner Saturday night and us going over to another friend's house Sunday afternoon for a card game? Technically, yes, I did. I finished hand-sewing on the last hook-n-eye about an hour ago. Of course, that means it was nowhere near daylight out for decent pictures. So for now, I will leave it to your imagination. Can you picture the above blazer as a skirt? I'll have finished photos up soon so you can see compare your vision to mine.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

Hey there! Today I'm visiting the House of Estrela to guest post for her Refashion Month. You should come on over and see how I transformed one of my husband's shirts into a cute sundress!

Sunday Sew-Day: Blazers, Part III

I bought this casual cotton blazer a few years back when I got my first real grown-up job and wanted to dress semi-professionally. I believe it came from Burlington Coat Factory, so it certainly wasn't expensive, but I don't recall the actual price.

As with last week's remake, I had already used the button relocation trick on this one, but clearly, after further weight loss, it's gonna take something a little more powerful this go 'round.

Blazers, Part II

This week's been a doozy, my friends. The polar vortex that froze up the United States a couple weeks ago was followed by a bit of a heat wave. Temps reached as high as 70F/21C here in Texas last weekend. It was lovely. I took my Sunday Sew-Day project outside to do some hand-sewing on the patio. Laika basked in the sunshine.

But it's all fun and games until someone eats a light bulb. Or part of one. You see, months ago, before we got the puppy, my husband accidentally broke one of the flood lights on our back patio. He cleaned up the glass, and we went on with our lives. Unfortunately, he missed a piece. A piece the puppy was kind enough to find for us last Sunday. Luckily for her, I was sitting right there when she picked it up and ate it. Luckily for her, I have friends in the dog-fixing business. I called my friend the vet tech for advice, and she suggested we meet her at the clinic, which is actually closed on Sundays, for an x-ray. Upon confirming that yes, indeed, our dog was stupid enough to swallow something that sliced the roof of her mouth up when she bit into it, this friend called her friend and coworker, who just happens to be a former classmate of ours as well as a full-fledged veterinarian. This second friend was good enough to drive into the city from her lovely suburban home far away on her night off just to perform emergency surgery on our dim-witted dog. She removed three shards of glass (and a whole assortment of other objects traditionally considered inedible) from Laika's stomach before they could reach her narrower intestines and start doing some real damage. Plus, while she was under the knife we had them also spay and microchip her, a little ahead of our intended schedule, but hey, two birds with one stone, right? At least, the drugs appear to be effective.

She stayed at the clinic for two days. Monday evening, we went and visited her immediately after work. Tuesday evening, we went and picked her up immediately after work. And I've been working from home the past two days, interspersing periods of actual work with playing nursemaid. She's on the mend, making gradual improvements daily. She clearly wants to be the playful puppy again, but lingering pain and that blasted collar really put a damper on things. I'm sure she'll be back to normal soon, having hopefully learned a valuable lesson about digestible and indigestible materials.

Needless to say, all this leaves little time for sewing, but I was able to finally finished Sunday's project. So let's get down to it, shall we? I've had this blazer hanging in my closet for a year or so now. It was initially thrifted though I don't recall the price; certainly less than $5 tops. I've only ever worn it a couple times though. It's fine, just a little too plain, with sleeves a little too short, and now it's a little too large as well.