Well, she’s done it again! Dafna is the master at finding kick-ass clothing with potential at the thrift store and then coming to visit. Her bargain find this time was a Michael Jackson “King of Pop” T-shirt. It wasn’t the best quality, and was that heavy weight knit that nobody really likes, HOWEVER it was the perfect piece for this project!
Dafna had grand schemes of turning this almost priceless gem into a bodycon dress, and naturally I was up for the challenge! In order to do that, we would need to tailor the heck out of it, and extend the length. Here’s one last look at the shapeless before…
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Continue Reading Dafna’s king of pop t-shirt
This creative repair is really a rescue. The shirt below was involved in a drinking incident. Here’s how it went down…
One guy believed his buddy was too “buttoned-up” for the party. That sweet, caring soul wanted to help his buddy out, and attempted to unbutton one of his buttons, forgetting how buttons worked, and thus ripping the button-hole clear through. Of course, this is all pretty hilarious, BUT this was his favorite shirt, and he would not accept its demise! (Honestly, this is the best customer story I’ve ever heard!) Let’s look at the party results again…
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Continue Reading Crazy awesome shirt repair
Andrea had this old blazer in her closet and wanted to see if there was something I could do with it. The blazer definitely had potential, but something about it wasn’t quite working, so we decided to revamp it!
I showed her my CardiBlazer design and she wanted to go for it. She picked out a tan for the accent stripe, which kept it appropriate for work. I also noticed that there was a stain on the sleeve, but she wanted the sleeves hemmed 3/4 length anyways, so I just made sure I hemmed up high enough…
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Continue Reading Andrea’s CardiBlazer
This beautiful vintage dress had been worn to the Seersucker Ride in DC, but unfortunately the delicate silk did not hold up to the biking. There were 2 large holes on the left side of the bodice and this client was hoping I could rescue this precious piece. With such a delicate fabric, I informed her that there was no traditional way to repair this and it called for a creative repair. Ouch:
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Continue Reading Vintage dress creative repair
Stephanie picked up this 80’s gem as a freebie in her building. It had a lot of potential, but there was no denying how 80’s it was. What I like to do on pieces like these is take the 80’s and trim it down to the 40’s. Let’s take a moment to reflect on how 80s this dress was…
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Continue Reading Stephanie’s 80s dress
You may recognize Jamie from her muu muu revamp, polka dot dress revamp or her sheer blouse update, but this time she had something to revamp for her friend. Her friend’s father had given her a jacket from his travels to Tibet. It has some really amazing details, but did not fit well and was not easy to wear. When Jamie first brought it in I had no idea what we could do with it, and knew it would require some major creative thinking. The most we decided on was that it would likely end up being a vest. I got an idea of what budget we were shooting for, and let Jamie know I would email her with some ideas. Here’s the before (ignore the pins indicating I almost forgot to take a before pic!)…
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Continue Reading Jamie’s revamp for a friend
Well, I already worked some magic for Julie and Nina, so I don’t see why I couldn’t figure out something for Karen’s amazing teeny-tiny vintage silk dress too! All around it was too small, the armpits had rips in them, but we both agreed that this dress needed to be revamped so it could have another life cycle!…
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Continue Reading Karen’s tiny vintage dress
Modern jackets don’t fit Jon right, and he has found that his size in vintage clothing fits perfectly in the shoulders. Thus, he ventures online to various vintage shops, does his shopping, then has pieces tailored for any extra needed tweaking. This particular piece was from the 20’s and was in ridiculous condition (we suspect it could in fact be proof of time travel)…
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Continue Reading Jon’s 1920’s blazer
Miss Nina of the AMAZING Ciao Nina fascinators was in need of a dress rescue. Well…Nina had this AMAZING dress, only problem was that is was much too small. I didn’t let that stop me with miss Julie, and this was clearly very worthy of a revamp. As you can tell, the sleeves were much too tight, and the zipper was in no way going up…
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Continue Reading Nina’s tiny dress
The fashionable lady behind I Found That Vintage, Dafna, had this great tie in her collection, begging to be revamped. Dafna decided she wanted it turned into one of my custom Ascots, which is a little more modern with its angular lines than my Lady Ties. So we figured out how long she wanted the straps and went for it!…
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Continue Reading Dafna’s custom ascot
Quite some time ago, Julie purchased this vintage number at Remix on Capitol Hill before they, sadly, closed. The dress was adorable, and she was hoping to wear it to a masquerade, but the main problem – it was sooo tiny! If we were to make this work we needed to get creative and add several inches. Initially, we believed it to be a lost cause, then I started blurting out different options, this one being the last, and a fairly accurate excited direct quote…
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Continue Reading Julie’s tiny vintage dress
Tyler had an old hoodie and a great idea of what he wanted to do to it. It was pretty simple–he wanted me to hem the sleeves and add slits to the sides. So we hemmed the sleeves with cuffs showcasing the cool texture from the inside of the sweatshirt, and adapted the sides to have slits. And there you have it!…
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Continue Reading Tyler’s hoodie revamp
Lindsay had a few of her mother’s old blazers that were over-sized and boxy. She wanted them to fit in with her modern wardrobe, and she had one jacket in particular that grabbed my attention–how can you go wrong with a statement fire-engine red blazer?! As you can see the fit was just way too big for her…
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Continue Reading Lindsay’s mother’s blazer
James had these older items sitting in his closet, but no longer liked the fit. This outfit in particular deserved a before and after to show how even simple tailoring can make such a difference. As you can see this blue shorts were too long but the perfect color, and his button-up was baggy. However, the pattern begged to be his new favorite short sleeve summer shirt (*oy! Say that five times fast!). One last look at the before…
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Continue Reading James’ outfit revamp
Georgia had this jacket in her closet for many years. She originally purchased it from a weaver who not only make the jacket but also the fabric. Her weaving was absolutely amazing, but her garment construction and tailoring was not quite on the same level…
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Continue Reading Georgia’s handwoven jacket
I have done a number of projects for Emily (you may remember her yellow dress), and this was definitely one of my favorites! She found this amazing vintage piece and saw the potential it had! As you can tell, the dress was just too much, and it was taking over her body! The sleeves were crazy, the hem was too long, it was too big, and it had a few moth holes. Check out that unflattering dress!!…
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Continue Reading Emily’s epic vintage dress
The jacket was given to Dana by her grandfather. Earlier this year, her grandfather sadly passed away, and she wanted to have something special made from the jacket that she could wear to the memorial service. As you can imagine, this piece had a bit of sentimental value to it. She wanted a piece that she would wear regularly so she could continue to carry the memories of her grandfather with her. Here is before picture of the coat, and scroll down to see how Dana and I decided to redesign it!…
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Continue Reading Dana’s grandfather’s jacket
You may remember Tiffany’s CardiBlazer, but here’s to show that men can rock the CardiBlazer too! Aaron had this great coat in his closet, but the fit wasn’t quite right and he never wore it. When I suggested revamping his old blazer into this design, he was excited, but wanted a little more tailoring done on the coat as well. So I removed a nice bit of fabric out of the back, which also brought the shoulders into a better position…
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Continue Reading Aaron’s CardiBlazer
Katherine had this denim dress in her closet for quite some time, but it was too small to zip up, the black band was trying to make an unfortunate esacape from the dress (gotta love crappy construction from the factories!), and those buttons were just meant to get stuck on something and rip a hole in the dress. Worry not! All are things that I can revamp…
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Continue Reading Katherine’s dress to skirt
I have been doing a lot of denim repair over the last year or so, but never remember to take pictures! Finally, I am working to document them, and I will be posting more pictures of examples of this type of work. To kick things off, I wanted to start with a fun one–denim repair of the less traditional sort. First off, ouch…
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Continue Reading A loud denim repair
What do you do with a big ol’ bag dress? Jamie found this amazing piece from Buffalo Exchange (1318 14th St NW) for $10, fell in love with the fabric, and knew just where to bring it! The hilarious part is that this dress has a size tag marked “M” sewn in. . . we think the manufacturer may have miscalculated a little…
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Mallorie had this adorable little vintage number in her collection, the problem is it came to her with some definite rough spots…
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Continue Reading Mallorie’s treadbare vintage dress
Nick picked up this gem at Crossroads on U & 14th, and knew exactly what he wanted. As soon as he saw it, he knew it had potential, and asked if we could slim it and hem the sleeves to a cuffed short sleeve. I was definitely on board. Luckily since we were slimming the sides so much, I was able to do the cuffed hem, no problem!…
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Continue Reading Nick’s camo shirt
Julie received this hand-me-down from her mother–it was her prom dress from the 60s. It had an itty-bitty waist and was much too small, but between the fabric and sentimental value, it had some major potential. We agreed to turn it into a skirt. Julie mentioned how a co-worker of hers had a skirt with an amazing waistband. She showed me a picture, and I was totally on board because I have already added that same flattering waistband to other designs…
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Continue Reading Julie’s mother’s dress
If you do not know Christylez Bacon, he is one stylish and talented dude. He has been coming to me for some time now to build out his collection of my version of an Ascot, which I originally made at Ginger Root. On this one in particular, he gave us a call and put in his order for an extra special custom Ascot for his album release show, and of course I was on board! He wanted a black satin tie with white piping along the bottom edge…
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Continue Reading Christylez’s custom tux ascot
Beth had an old jacket that was way too big for her but had such a great fabric! She wanted it recycled into something other than a jacket that she could wear again. After looking at a few pictures of our designs, she decided that she wanted it turned into one of our woven vests…
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Continue Reading Beth’s woven vest
When closet cleaning, you may come across an old blazer or 2 that you just can’t part with, but that need some pizzazz. A while back I developed something I would like to call the CardiBlazer. As you can tell, we ditched the collar and we finish the edges with a stripe of color. Tiffany had this great purple stripe blazer that we converted…
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Continue Reading Tiffany’s CardiBlazer
Jamie originally got this blouse at the consignment store Current Boutique on 14th St. to use its buttons on another project. She tried to give us the blouse in case we had some design brainstorms, and I instantly rattled off ideas of how we could easily change it so she could wear it. She was totally on-board! First, those sleeves had to go…
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Continue Reading Jamie’s unexpected blouse revamp
Well folks, we’ve all done it. In one swift motion you hear that sound and dread looking down because you know what you’re going to find–that dumb dumb dumb hole!! Argh! After you get a few swear words out of your system, then you quickly accelerate to the mourning phase. However you might not have to give up on that shirt because of one silly hole…
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Continue Reading Shirt slice
Everybody has their favorite garment, or in this case, Joseph had his favorite jacket. It was one of those pieces that I would consider well-loved: elbows worn through, and generally rough around edges. He previously had the elbows patched, which then wore out again…
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Continue Reading Joseph’s favorite jacket
Jamie bought this polka dot dress at a consignment shop–it had potential, but just wasn’t quite right. She is a performer (an oboist to be exact) and ideally wanted to be able to wear the dress to concerts and events, but hoped it could be a little more modern and fun…
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Continue Reading Jamie in polka dots
Emily has a great eye for vintage, and vintage with potential. One day she came in with this adorable yellow and white shift dress. Unfortunately, the bottom half of the dress was see-through. But with such a great pattern and those cute buttons, Emily was determined to make it wearable…
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Continue Reading Emily’s vintage dress to staple top
