2013 Refashion #5: Sweater Dress to Peplum Tunic

With the Me-Made-May'13 challenge looming closer, I am starting to take a closer look into my self-made wardrobe to see what works and what doesn't. 

I have been sewing (or daydream about sewing) pretty much all the time for maybe a year and a half now and sewn quite a few item of clothing for myself. However, there are still some huge gaps in my wardrobe, and then there are some me-mades that I wear all the time, and some that have never seen the light of day.

First outfit being investigated was my buttery yellow wool knit sweater dress (Butterick 5523). Made early last year, I searched high and low for a suitable pattern for this fabric. Chosen for the pretty cowl neckline (I heart cowl necklines...), I also was interested in the back tab in the pattern. Pretty sure I changed up the sleeves (made it bell sleeves than a slim one), but no thanks to my not so detailed blogpost, can't recall if I made any other changes to the pattern other than making it A-line.

It was a very cozy sweater dress. I love the fit around my shoulders and of course I love the neckline. But I don't like that the pleats in front and back were not kind to me and makes me look frumpier.  And the back tab (I could probably have attached it better) further highlight the messy back skirt pleats. 

Wearing the sweater dress, the back skirt part clings to the back of my legs (curved inwards), which is definitely not helping my case... Also because I have the tendency to wear my dresses with pants. Yeap. Or leggings. I think it is because I get cold pretty easily, and/or the traditional style influence of my Southeast Asian culture ;)

I did wear it out quite a number of times last year, most of the time it remained under my huge black down jacket out of public view...

So with all that in mind, I decided to redo the outfit into a top so that I can wear pants/skirts with it and not have the skirt part of the dress cling to my legs.

I unpicked the skirt part from the bodice part (including the back tab portion) keeping the upper part intact, and add peplum to the raised waistline. I used the Vogue 8815 pattern for the peplum part. Luckily I had enough leftover fabric, so I used those instead of the original skirt part of the dress (not wide enough). Worry not, I have plans for it very soon.

This refashion is very straight forward. It took me just a night for most of the work including basting the hem. By the next morning, I had it all hemmed and ready for MMM'13!

Sharing with friends @ Refashion Co-op and Recycled Fashion Finds...