Black Lace and Vegan Leather Lingerie Inspired Refashion

This refashion is a composite of: a tacky black and pink negligee with a bra top, a black "leather" floral tank top, a vintage "merry widow", and a black "leather" stretchy skirt. All of these items were purchased dirty cheap separately over the last two years, and I set them aside for the right inspiration to repurpose them. 

The foundation of this top is the tacky, ruffled negligee pictured below.

I really liked this black "leather" floral lace tank top, but..... it didn't fit well, and it wasn't (ahem) very supportive...

 I decided to remove the tacky ruffles from the bra part of the negligee. The bra fits great, so it will be great for support and keeping the top in place. Then, I chopped off the sheer "skirt" part of the negligee. It was itchy, anyway.

Next...... I pinned the black "leather" lace top and centered it over the bra. I sewed them together after I was sure that it looked like they were going to work well together.

Here's how it looked from the back, before I cut off the existing back of the black lace top, after I pinned it to the bra.

This is the back vintage body shaper/ merry widow. It fit okay from the waist down, but not in the chest. I ended up cutting the lace trim off the cups, and keeping the straps.

This is the black "vegan leather" skirt before I cut into it. I ended up seam-ripping it apart, and removing the existing zipper. It ended up becoming the back of the top.

I bought a black 10" open-ended plastic zipper from Jo-Ann Fabrics, because I didn't want to use the skirt zipper (not open-ended) or the top's existing zipper (short, and hard to zip).

I pinned the zipper and the skirt together, while keeping the waistband of the skirt as the top of the back of this top. I sewed the black skirt to zipper by hand. I centered the zipper in the back of the top, and also sewed the sides the "leather" to the floral lace top. 

 

Next, I needed to find a template for the back hem. The skirt was way too long, and I needed to have a nice transition between the floral irregular hem in the front to the zipper bottom. So, I lined up the skirt, took a silver Sharpie, and drew my hem. I took the rotary cutter and carefully cut just inside the line to create the hem. No sewing needed to finish them.

The finishing touch....... I sewed the straps from the vintage body shaper/ merry widow onto the front and back of the top. 

I really like how this turned out! I wore it as part of an outfit when I went to go see RATT in concert this past April. I felt comfortable, and sexy but not slutty. I fit right into the crowd, and nobody knew it was a DIY outfit. Everything stayed in place, and no "wardrobe malfunctions" occurred.