I Had 7 Days to Make This Outfit From My Stash | Here's How It Went

There's nothing quite like a deadline to make you find out what you're actually capable of. When I decided to sew an outfit for a Havana Nights-themed fundraiser, I gave myself one rule: everything had to come from my fabric stash. No new fabric, just what I already had on hand and I had exactly 7 days.

The Design

I wanted something that felt like the theme, warm, a little dramatic, made for a night out but without being a costume. I landed on a two-tier skirt with a high-low hem, paired with a matching halter top. I seemed simple, but realized it was a lot more complicated once I actually started drafting it.

Where It Got Complicated

I started the pattern digitally in Illustrator, drafting both skirt tiers as circle skirts. But once I saw them on the dress form, something wasn't right, there wasn't enough volume to get the draping effect I wanted in that high-low hem. Flat paper drafting can only tell you so much.

So I printed the digital pattern and switched to drafting by hand, using the slash-and-spread method to add volume to both tiers. I'm honestly faster working this way, especially with such a short deadline and it's part of why I ended up leaning on it so heavily this week.

From there, it was cutting, sewing, hand-hemming both tiers (for that light, floating movement I wanted), and constructing the halter top. All while watching the days on the calendar disappear faster than I would've liked.

The Finish Line

I finished this outfit the morning of the event. I was hand-stitching the last details about 20 minutes before I needed to walk out the door.

I won't pretend that's the ideal way to finish a project. But there's something about sewing under real pressure that sharpens your decision-making in a way a relaxed timeline doesn't. Every choice mattered more. Every step had to count.

Watch the Full Story

I filmed as much of this process as I could, though I'll be honest, with a deadline this tight, filming took a back seat to actually finishing the outfit. The video picks up about halfway through the project, and some of the patternmaking and hand-sewing happened off camera simply because there wasn't time to do both.

Even so, I think it's an honest look at what a real deadline sew actually looks like, the chaos, the decisions made on the fly and the race to the finish line.

YouTube Video: I Had 7 Days to Make This Outfit From My Stash

If you watch it, I'd genuinely love to know: have you ever finished something that close to the wire? Drop a comment on the video and tell me about it.

Follow Along

If you want to see more of the process (and the eventual results of a project I definitely stress-tested my own limits on), I'm sharing more behind-the-scenes on Instagram and Facebook.

Dress like you mean it. 🧵

~Marisol