March 10, 2014

Purple Swishy Dress - Transformed!

So I found this gorgeous dress at Goodwill for under $4.00.
I loved the color, flow, and fit but not the strange halter/high neckline or wide-open back (thus I wore a t-shirt underneath for pictures :P). With a bit of imagination and work, I was able to transform the dress into something I can't wait to wear to a dance! Hang in with me for a bit while I show you how I did it, and hopefully you'll be inspired! Oh, and please pardon the backgrounds in these pictures... I didn't have sis handy to be my photographer so I had to use the mirrors in our spacious bathroom. :/ 
It's actually still the same color... different lighting makes for a different look in these pictures.

First off,  I found this shirt at Goodwill.
It looks kinda wrinkly and ugly in that picture, but it's actually a nice cream color with lace puffed sleeves. I would have loved to wear it by itself, but sadly it's too tight to be considered modest and is fairly see-through. :( .....but it looks lovely under my dress!

My first order of business was to fix the neckline of the dress. I simply tucked the extra bodice/fabric under to make it look like a strapless dress and pinned it in place.
Basted it...
Then I cut the unwanted fabric off at 3/4 in allowance and removed the beading on the parts I folded under. I also made sure to tie off the extra strings attached to the beads on the front of the dress, because otherwise it will keep on unraveling and spewing beads all over. :)
I quickly whip-stitched the layers at the cut edge together to keep the fraying down. Pretty fabric like this often frays really bad. :/
I folded it under twice and then I sewed it by hand, catching everything but the outside layer on the front so the stitching doesn't show.
Voila! I have a strapless dress! But you know the problems everyone who wears a strapless dress has keeping it *ahem* hiked up in the front? Well, this dress isn't going to be any better... If anything, it'll be worse because it wasn't originally made to be strapless. To fix this problem I used three safety pins. Since the shirt is so stretchy, I actually had to pin through the dress, shirt, and my bra. Sorry if that was TMI... But it holds the dress up like a dream!
The dress also had a small rip in the hem...
And since it was going to be tough to replicate the tiny hem, I used a trick learned from ballet class. ;) To keep the ends of our pointe shoe ribbons from fraying, we used clear nail polish. And what do you know? It worked on my dress as well!
Can you tell where I fixed it?
So there you have it! My "new" dress is now modest, comfy, and beautiful! And the whole outfit cost me under $10!!! 

4 comments:

  1. I like the last picture--iPad head =D. . . . . . ;)

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  2. Oh, yeah that... Umm I didn't feel like cropping it out again, I guess. :P

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  3. Beautiful work and a lovely color! You are very creative!

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    Replies
    1. Why thank you! I love the color to pieces :D

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