Fall Closet Clean Out

It's been cold the last couple of nights here on the East Coast and last night I finally broke down and turned the heat on for a couple of hours to take the chill out of my home. It's also been colder in the mornings as I go out to work so most of the late summer wardrobe has been pushed to the back of the closet and the early fall stuff is coming out.

But this year my closet is much fuller than in years past. I've been sewing - ALOT! So today I decided to tackle my closet...the cleaning and purging that I do twice a year...in the spring and fall. Usually I just make two piles - "toss" and "donate"...but this year I added another - "Refashion".

I really liked refashioning the skirts this summer. So instead of just donating or tossing things this season, I found two more candidates to refashion. Now these aren't huge transformations, I'm talking about some simple hems that will give the garments a new life. Longer skirts and dresses just aren't cutting it...mmmmm let me rephrase that...some longer garments aren't cutting it! *LOL* Many of my longer lined wool skirts will remain as they are so they can continue to be worn on very cold days!!!

Just these two pieces so far needed to be refreshed...first the skirt. I bought this yardage in JoMars at the downtown Philadelphia store at least 10 years ago. I am such a border print girl and was also really into moleskin at the time...so to find a moleskin border print just made my heart sing. I brought it home and promptly made a long elastic waist skirt with a back slit to emphasize the border print. Somewhere there was a jacket in a coordinating green moleskin to wear with it but that seems to have been donated a while back.

Here is the skirt in its original form:

and here it is now:

It will work for a casual friday situation with a brown sweater and sleeveless turtleneck already in my wardrobe. I cut the border print off and added a very small hem. It will be a little trendy but not too, just right for my corporate work environment. I am holding onto the bottom portion of the skirt because who knows when this "trim" will come in handy!

The second refashion is a simple black knit dress. I made this dress and matching cardigan two years ago when I started the job I have now. It was a quick down and dirty sew that gave me a "professional" look for meetings. The length of the hem has always bothered me. I feel a little dowdy when I wear this combination, so this year I've decided to shorten the hem of the dress and split the pieces...never to be worn together again!

I've got piles everywhere and probably won't get any "real" sewing done this weekend...however, I am freeing up some much needed space in my closet and getting a few hangers back! If anything else good shows up, I will let you know!

Tomorrow pics of the finished EOS twinset...