project restyle: the girl, the muumuu and grimace

I have a pile of unwanted clothes from my mother's closet that I thought I might be able to rescue, so I've joined in on A Beautiful Mess's ongoing group DIY fest Project Restyle over at Flickr. The idea is to take old or vintage items that can't be used in their present state and remake them into something beautiful. Here, I did a pretty basic restyle of this big, shapeless dress just by adjusting the sleeves and hemming it into a minidress. Much better proportions for me, no? Here's a cropped closeup.

Sorry for the blurring. Camera did not want to focus indoors today, nosiree.

I also took pictures of a restyle-in-progress. This sweater tunic is the color I like to call "Grimace purple" (does anyone even remember who Grimace is anymore?) It can probably donate parts to a few different items, like arm warmers or something. Here's what happened to the skirt piece, which also incorporated extra fabric from the black dress above. Please excuse the missing shoes; I seem to be lacking variety in that area. Hoping to snag a few new pairs for summer soon, but for now I'm pulling out my empty pockets like a cartoon character...!