Honeymoon round up - Part 3 - DIY wardrobe

Alight, thank you for indulging me with all the honeymoon posts and photos. I promise that this will be the last one, and will also actually contain something sewing-related... 

It's my DIY honeymoon wardrobe - in action photos! I was really pleased to have worn a number of my handmade items on this trip (though I brought a few more, like my daisy dress, for example). 

At the lu'au in my turquoise shift dress (Simplicty 2146) 

In my upcycled shirred dress

By the "dragon teeth" in my Little Lisette Traveler (I have only just realised that the spelling of "traveler" with just the one r on the pattern - how very ignorant of me to have completely looked past this and written an entire blog post spelling "traveller" a hundred times previously!) - it was rather windy!

In my pullover beach cover up top on the beach (Vogue 8278)

On the beach again in my heirloom top 

In San Fran, I also wore my very latest Sew for Victory top but I didn't get any snaps taken as 1) it was completely covered by my jacket and scarf 2) after all that travelling and lack of sleep, I was not feeling particularly photogenic. 

There is also of course the little romper (Mccalls 6331), which you will have seen already earlier this week. 

And finally, there was another beach cover up - a kaftan - let's save that for next time :) 

"Mini-moon" wardrobe starts here

With less than a month to go before we hop on the Eurostar for our so-called "mini-moon", I have, of course, started mentally packing (by which I mean packing in my head, as opposed to packing in a crazy manner). I mean, we are only going to Paris, the fashion capital of the world, and are only going to be on a "mini-moon" once in our lives... so no pressure...

Thankfully my sewing machine came to mind. What better way to start my mini-moon wardrobe than making a few items myself? I thought I'd start with a very simple project that I've been wanting to do for ages, a quick refashion. 

A year or so ago, I bought this maxi skirt in the sale (obviously.. can you see all the price reduction stickers?), which refused to stay on my hips, with the view of upcycling it into a sundress. I had my eyes on the super soft floral fabric, the fullness of the skirt, and the pleats at the bottom.    

One year on, I finally got round to implementing my genius plan. After some mild unpicking, and approx. 3 whole hours of intensive shirring on a school night, my first mini-moon wardrobe item is complete! 

So there you have it, a very quick and effective project! This is what I did:

• I removed the top "tier" of the maxi skirt; 
• I measured the length of the skirt to position the pleats to start just above my hips so I get a dropped waist effect;
• I finished the edges of the top of the dress, sewing a casing for a piece of elastic;
• Then I shirred, shirred, and shirred some more, using a whole spool of elastic thread; 
• Finally I inserted some white elastic into the top, et voila! I have a new sundress!