FALL FASHION REPURPOSED: Crop top and high-waisted skirt DIY

With temperatures dropping in San Diego, I started riffling through my closet for some autumn-appropriate clothing.  Finding very little that excited me, and even less that still fit, I was feeling  defeated.  I was resigned to the fact that I’d be raiding my husband’s side of the closet for the next few months.  That was until I stumbled upon a dress I picked up in a thrift store a few years ago: a double-breasted knit dress.  I no longer wore it, and I had long contemplated getting rid of it, but the dress still had potential.  I love to reimagine or reinvent something that I already own, giving it a new life and saving it from the landfill.  This dress seemed the perfect candidate.  I decided to make it into a little cropped top and high-waist skirt, similar to one I saw Solange Knowles wearing.  (Yes, the girl who wears khakis and hiking boots for a living occasionally reads fashion blogs!)  

There was only one problem: I had never sewn anything more than a hem, so this was going to be a steep learning curve.  It turned out it wasn’t so hard after all and I’m thrilled with the end result.  My new (old) outfit is perfect for San Diego’s mild autumn.

Supplies:

Knit dress

8” wide coordinating knit fabric (length approx. = waist measurement + 1” seam allowance)

Thread

Chalk

Scissors

Step 1:

Try the dress on and use chalk to mark your real waist.

Step 2:

Cut the dress in two at real waist marking.

Step 3:

To make the top more fitted I added 2 darts to the front and 2 to the back. 

I used a pattern block to mark the location of my darts.  If you don’t have one available, this handy youtube demonstration will show you how to mark and sew them in the right place. 

Step 4:

Mark and sew two pleats in the front of skirt and two darts in the back. 

Step 5:

Cut two strips of the black knit fabric, one 2” wide (edging for top) and the other 6” wide (waistband).  Calculate the length of strips required by measuring the total length of cut edge of top or skirt and adding 1” for seam allowance. 

Step 6:

Fold strips in half and iron flat.  Fold raw edges in towards center and iron. 

Step 7:

Sandwich the raw edge of your top within the edging.  Pin and sew.

Step 8:

Sandwich the raw edge of the skirt within the waistband.  Pin, sew and you’re done!

I love my new crop top and skirt.  They are so much cuter than my husband’s over-sized sweaters.

 

LIVING WALL DIY

When we moved into our home, we knew we had a lot of gardening ahead of us. In a bid to save water, the previous owners had killed most of the plants and aggressive ivy had finished off the rest.  In a way, this was a blessing as we could start from scratch, planting California natives and other drought tolerant plants, like the fynbos of my native South Africa.  But our favorite gardening project to date has been a living wall.  For years we had stared at a large lattice structure, covered with a few scraggly vines, which separated our yard from the neighbours.  We finally hit on the idea of converting it to a living wall that, when planted with succulents, would not only provide us with more privacy but would also be drought tolerant.  Of course, buying enough succulents to cover 64 square feet would have cost a fortune.  Instead, we asked neighbors, trimmed hedges and cut some invasive succulents that had overgrown street signs.

Materials:

23  2x1x8 pine beams

2 rolls of 3 x 50 ft weed blocker

½ gallon of outdoor paint

nail and staple gun

1½" nails

5/16" staples

5 cubic feet potting soil/compost mix

a variety of succulents

Step 1:

Remove the inner lattice. The inner dimensions of our frame measured 8x8 ft.

Step 2:

Insert two upright 1x2’s approximately 31” apart into the frame.  Use a nail gun to secure them to the frame. 

Step 3:

Insert horizontal 1x2 beams that will hold the plants.  The beams were set 2 ¾” apart and nailed into the frame and the uprights.

 

Step 4:

Paint the frame and beams.

Step 5:

We created pockets for our plants using Jamie Spooner’s method found here. Jamie has great diagrams of how this is done, so please visit his site for more details.

We altered our pockets to fit smaller plants.  Our edge folds were approximately 2¼” on either side and our pockets were approximately 10” deep.   

Step 6:

Mix compost and potting soil and fill the pockets.

Step 7:

Decide on a design (probably the hardest part) and plant succulents.

Step 8:

Use a hose to water your newly planted garden.  Our living wall is beneath an old oak tree therefore we only need to water it once a week.

 I hope this tutorial has inspired you to tackle a living wall yourselves.  Have fun! Nicole