Thursday, May 14, 2009

Reinvintage: A Mexican muumuu becomes a tunic.

Before...

...and After.

Look at my (self proclaimed) brilliant reinvention of a vintage thrift find, or to summarize a "reinvintage!" I wanted to write a sewing pattern review for this, however, it hardly seemed worth a pattern review as all I did was hem the muumuu into a shirt.

I purchased the dress at San Antonio's new, local, wannabe Buffalo Exchange called Stitch to Wear. It is a clothing resale shop with a small design department. The endeavor is only a few months old, and only boasts a few racks of recycled clothing, but I did find this amazing piece as well as a beautiful velvet vintage skirt that is sized for a 22 inch waist, but was so pretty and inexpensive that I had to buy it anyway. If you have a 22 inch waist and are looking for a purple floral print velvet skirt, AND if you can replace a zipper or will hire someone to do it for you, then let me know. I have the skirt for you. It is my gift to the person willing to take a picture of themselves wearing it out, so I can live vicariously through you. Anyways, back to the muumuu dress.

This dress was a real gem because of the yoked collar and fitted shoulders. I knew on first glance it would make an adorable tunic. And it was perfect timing, because my beautiful sister Ellen was visiting and she was a natural fit. It took a bit of convincing to make her see that this muumuu could be a fashion gem, but she came around. In fact, it was her excellent prompting to lengthen where I planned to hem that saved this shirt. My one word of advice for others performing this type of reinvintage is to hem long. You can always take it up more, but you can never make your cropped muumuu into a cute tunic once you cut it too short.

Next up, keep your eyes out for the pending reinvintage skirt, featuring none other than a great scene of a palm tree, senorita, and her Mexican beau relaxing on a sunny, slightly cloudy day.


2 comments:

Jen said...

I am so glad you're going to re-invent the skirt portion, too! My first though upon seeing the photo of the new shirt was, "where's the glorious skirt portion? What are you going to do with it! Argh!"

I should have known you would be doing SOMETHING with it!

Meat Lover said...

Kate, nice tunic top!

About that velvet skirt, is it a true 22? I'm not that tiny, but I am a 24! I love that there are other people besides me who buy clothes because it is cheap and beautiful, yet not their size. Some lucky friends and cousins have profited from my vintage store prowls.