J McLaughlin Refashion

The RTW Fasters and I are halfway through our pledge to abstain from buying ready-to-wear clothes during 2014! Lots of the women are knocking it out of the ballpark sewing incredible clothes too.

I’ve found reaching the halfway point serves as a great incentive in achieving nearly every goal I’ve set out to accomplish, and I celebrated the six-month marker by cleaning out my closet. :)

While I’ve questioned the wisdom about going on the RTW Fast during the same year of my child’s wedding, the closet exercise proved my decision sound.

Closet organization generates a different type of creative pleasure for me. I do not follow the Tim Gunn rule of getting rid of clothes I haven’t worn in a year for I am sentimentally attached to many garments taking up precious space. I truly enjoy the memories certain clothes awaken, but I was not sentimentally attached to this J McLaughlin top purchased in March 2011.

It brought back memories of a serious overindulgence I plead guilty to. It’s pretty, but similar to other clothes purchased during the same shopping trip and I never wear it. By the time I get around to wearing white pants, the weather is warm and this top is hot with its long sleeves – I think it looks hot even in the shade!

An easy re-fashion was in order and in less than an hour I transformed the waste of money into a welcome wardrobe addition.

After removing the sleeves, I stitched the sides to eliminate the underarm flare. This took a few tries, but once the fit was right I ran the seam through the serger.

Next I marked and trimmed one inch off of the shoulder and angled the cut midway down the front and back armscye.

I finished the arms with a coverstitch before turning and topstitching. The four-way French spandex behaved very well giving me just the look I wanted.

Easy projects are certainly welcome during this year of more complicated sewing, but even better is the satisfaction of turning something useless into something treasured, and I know this top will now be a summer staple.

S i x m o r e m o n t h s ! ! !