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Happy New Year, friends! 🙂 Are you as excited about 2014 as I am? I’m ready. I’m pumped. While 2013 was a very successful year in many ways, it was also an emotionally draining one that I’m happy to be closing and putting on the shelf.

2014 is going to bring exciting new things for ReFashionista.net as well. I have a list of resolutions, you see!

1. I’m bringing Wannabe Wednesdays and Thrift Score Thursdays (remember them?) back. Every week you’ll get to check out a fun new couture copycat and see what other amazing things I find in my thrifting adventures!

2. ReFashionista is about to undergo a major face lift. I’ve had this same boring theme for over 4 years. It’s time to shake things up with a new look that will work better on mobile devices. It is time!

3. I’m going to respond to every email I receive from you guys. Because it’s the polite thing to do and because I enjoy hearing from you.

4. I’m going to explore new sewing techniques to share with you. I’m going to grow my skill set and step outside of my comfort zone. I’ll still post plenty of easily-accessible tutorials, but you’ll be seeing more advanced stuff as well.

5. I’m going to share more stories about all the different types of relationships people all over the world have with fashion, and how we can all take a more ethical approach to styling ourselves.

6. 2014 is going to be a year of fun collaborations with artists, fellow refashionistas, and other cool people all over the world. I’m tired of creating in a vacuum. It’s time to make some friends.

I hope you’re as excited as I am!

In keeping with my first resolution, today is Wannabe Wednesday (trumpet fanfare!)!

I was struck by the awesomeness of the Bohemian Elegance dress on ModCloth.

Isn’t this dress just sigh-worthy? I love it! I love the brown hue and I love how the bottom is sheer.

I just knew I could make something similar out of this $1 thrift store find right here:

There are several differences between my thrifty find and my inspiration piece…not the least of which being the color.

The label in my new dress had been completely ripped out, but I should have known it was mostly polyester, which doesn’t take to dye. But I was feeling adventurous! So I threw it in my washing machine with a whole bottle of brown dye and two cups of salt.

I should have known there was no way this dress was going to go full-brown. BUT my efforts weren’t for naught! I at least managed to muddy up that pale blue a bit, and those flowers were quite transformed from their stark white. See?

Unfortunately, my dye job revealed a nasty secret. :/

I almost gave up on this dress then and there. Those newly-revealed stains were just nasty…and I wasn’t sure how to get rid of them. Unfortunately, it was New Year’s Eve and my friends were going to arrive to pick up for the evening’s festivities shortly. I had to make this work!

I snipped off the ties from the shoulders of my new dress…

Then, I ripped off those sleeves.

This removed some of the grody pitness, but not all of it.

I had to do a bit more ripping to remove the lining from the outer stained layer.

While I was picking, I went ahead and made the distance between the shoulders of the dress narrower.

But Ack! Those stains! Suddenly, I knew exactly what to do! The outer layer is blousier than the lining. It would need to be taken in if it was going to look anything like the original anyway. So….two birds! One stone! I took it in.

I cut off those stained bits and wished them well on their journey to my trash can.

Almost done!

I closed up my new arm holes, leaving them detached from each other.

For my final trick, I cut off some of the lining, so my new dress would mirror the opaque-to-sheer look of my inspiration piece.

Now my dress is New Year’s Eve-Ready!

I had a wonderful evening with my friends!

I’m so very grateful for the amazing company I keep. They make the highest highs transcendent and the lowest lows possible to bear.

Cheers!

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