Some modern but classic all-American prep inspiration, plus How to Wear DIY - a modified colorblock dress!

Some modern but classic all-American prep inspiration, plus How to Wear DIY - a modified colorblock dress!

• 7.01.2014

I've had a magazine page binder for many years now. As much as I enjoy Pinterest and websites and my computer file structure, I'm so glad I've kept my inspiration binder to save gems like this piece. (Although I've also realized I can scan these magazine pages, and share them with you! There's just nothing like the printed word and photos to share a brief article with great images, is there?)

I pulled these pages out of my April 2014 Glamour magazine, and was immediately reminded of a dress I made last year and reworked this summer. I'll let you see the piece first!

In short, of course, Zooey Deschanel now has an apparel line, teamed with Tommy Hilfiger. I think her style has gotten a little more classy, classic, dressed up, and style-versatile in recent years, although many of us probably still think of sterotypical quirky and adorkable 2010 Zooey when we hear her name. But, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw these highlights of her line with Tommy. Not to say I'd wear all of them, but they did remind me of some of my own creations!

I was immediately reminded of this red and navy colorblock dress I made last year. I love cotton sateen solids for dresses--perfect weight for both bodices and skirts, totally wearable, not too wrinkly, bright and with a little sheen, but still 100% cotton. Great for a preppy, primary colors look. But, I didn't find this particular dress, I think because of the sleeves. Cute, but not great for layering or super warm days. Funny because I just removed the sleeves from this striped dress (also preppy!) and enjoy wearing it a lot more sleeveless! So I did the same thing to this dress.

Although, instead of turning the bias binding inward and topstitching on the armholes, I let the navy contrast bias binding show.

And wore it over the weekend to a get-together! So for the How to Wear DIY portion of our post today...

Luckily bias binding tape comes in lots of colors, and the navy was pretty easy to match to the navy of the skirt!

Bag, belt, shoes: Target/Target via Goodwill. Dress: DIY, here!, made over

Again, hooray for remaking clothes I already have to make a more wearable dress. 

And thanks, Zooey, for the red, white, and blue inspiration - perfect for the coming holiday weekend!