What I wore to the museum.... a refashioned Moo moo!

Sunday the boys and I visited the Virginia Living Museum for their "What is it?" event. The museum invited the public to bring in their nature finds, like feathers, stones, bugs or fossils, to be examined and discussed by the experts. Being a bit of an amateur fossil hunter and wanna-be-artifact finder I could not wait to bring in my stash. (I literally have a picnic basket full of rocks and treasures in my bedroom!) Well, I’ll tell you how enlightening our trip to the VLM was later, right now I just want to brag about my skirt! (You must forgive the two cell phone pics, this skirt was a pre-blog project, so I am just glad to have “before” pictures at all.)

Many moons ago while digging in the sale rack at my favorite thrift store I came across this green moo moo dress. I instantly fell in love with the bright green color and vintage ribbon stripes. In L-O-V-E!! I knew I had to have this dress in my life, just… not as a moo moo. Hoping I could easily turn it into a skirt, I paid a dollar for it and worked up the courage to cut it up. I am no seamstress, my mother says I am too impatient to sew anything correctly, and she is right. Patterns freak me out, and I normally do just fine without them. …..however, usually I am making dolls, or bunting, a cat costume or tote bags…. never anything that I’ve expected to keep my tush covered while in public. (That’s not true, I did sew a crazy patch work denim skirt in high school, and it was a mess!) Truthfully this was much easier than I thought it would be, I just chopped it above the pockets, folded the top down and sewed in a new elastic waist band with the machine. Because I didn’t take the skirt in at all I had to add a few stitches into the elastic at the pockets and the seam to keep everything in place. (I am sure you sewers out there are cringing at the way I hacked it all together- I was just glad it only took about an hour and a half, and then I got to watch some trashy TV.)

Originally the length of the skirt was determined by the pocket location. I didn’t want to have to move them down, so I just made the waist right above them. (Gotta love a skirt with pockets right?) Yet, after wearing it around a bit, I decided I wanted it a little shorter, so I took off a few inches from the bottom. Looking at that “before” picture up there though- I sort of wish I had left it.... it looked great right? Well, I still adore it anyway. The colors are perfect for spring and it gets me loads of compliments. (And not the “only you could wear that” sort either!)  I had such a good experience refashioning that tired old dress into this trendy skirt that I’ve been encouraged to do it again.  There is actually a basket in my closet filling up with vintage maternity dresses and more moo moos. I'd love to try and do the next set properly, with measurements and maybe even zippers, but, eh.... who am I kidding? Elastic waistbands are this girl’s best friend. It’s the quickest, and I have Girl Scout cookie pudge to deal with after all! (Nom-Nom!)

             Ha! Looking at these pictures I've realized that I was having so much fun this weekend with my rocks that I forgot to get my bangs cut. Well... I'll have to get to that tomorrow. (And don't forget to like Happy Words and Things on Facebook for a chance to win a Happy Prize Package. Good Luck!)

:-) -Kendra