Sunday, May 27, 2012

Drab Tank Dress to Fab Halter Dress

This is my best refashion to date.  I'm so impressed with how this turned out.  I saved yet another dress from the donation bag, this one left by my mom the last time she stayed with us.  I started with a dye job, as it was a blah greyish greenish.  You're going to have to imagine it, because I didn't get a picture before it jumped in the pink pool.
Grey/Green + "Rosa Mexicana" = Mauve
The only redeeming quality of this dress is the soft jersey fabric.  It was too wide on me, and I'm not a fan of screen printed lady bugs on my clothing.  So I got to choppin'.

See ya straps.

 I folded over what used to be the back of the dress and sewed a casing for the new front neckline.

Next, I got rid of the lovely lady bugs.  Don't worry, I'm saving them for something else.
Lady bug, lady bug fly away...

Next on the agenda was taking in the sides about 1.5" on each side so it would be a little more fitted.  I have no idea what size this dress was to begin with, as my mom is a habitual tag cutter.


I cut away the excess fabric and unfortunately the pockets had to be sacrificed.  
Sacrificial pocket.

 Next up I took the extra fabric from the pocket/seam sacrifice, braided it into 2 pieces and sewed one set of ends together.  I threaded it through the neck casing.

 Next I had to deal with the drapey back, as I only took in the sides of the skirt portion of the dress.  I decided to sew another casing and put some elastic through.

I also had to figure out what to do with the front of the dress, as I still had some leftover fabric hanging on the sides.  I left it for last to make sure I wouldn't cut/hem too much and have major side boob action.  I tried it on inside out, and pinned the excess fabric on each side, sewed it down, and cut away the excess.

WOO HOO!!  I did it!

From the back.

Halter strap detail.
I am super pleased/surprised at how well this turned out.  Thanks for stopping by!

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