Experiment in White

So here we are, is it a nighty? a wedding dress for a hippie? A maternity gown?? I wasn't sure but I loved the cotton material, the lace action on the sleeves and I wanted to do some experimenting with the Rit box again. Figured this would be a perfect specimen for the laboratory!!!

The crochet lace neckline was, unfortunately, not gonna make it so I had to surgically remove it, both in the front and the back.
Brings to mind a bit of shredded cheese clothe. Got to go now.

I used my seam ripper to extract the sleeves as I wasn't sure if I would go the sleeveless route or not. I could not salvage the lace so into the recycle bin it went.

I had to take the sides in several inches to reduce the billowing effect.

I took in the front panel and the back as well. Was a bit tricky since I wanted to keep the dart effects. I think I managed to keep the little mini panels intact.

Now to prepare for the tie dye bath. I wet the gown, then rubber banded knots all over the place. Into the dye bath it went for a lovely little pink makeover. The fun of tie dying is you never really know what will become of the clothe or where all the little funky circles will end up.

Aha! Here is the finished product. Kinda cool, reminds me of a popsycle. I did reattach the sleeves, shortened the hemline and made a belt from the extra fabric from the hem. Now all I need is a pair of pink flip flops, jump on my pink beach cruiser and for a moment I may be able to forget that it has been raining for 5 days straight!

Very Merry Red!

I was so taken by the color of this dress. Audrey Hepburn comes to mind for some reason. And her faithful dog Lola of course.

These shoulder pads have to be the largest ones yet. Off to Whoville they go where all shoulder pads can live in peace and harmony.

Now it was time to make some adjustments to the whole style of this dress. Clearly the uneven buttons were not going to fly. I was leaning toward more of a wrap idea not the shift style that it started out as. So I started to remove the buttons from the front.

Pads, buttons and one snap gone gone gone.
Next I opened up the top area and began to fold it in, keeping the collar intact. I then had to actually cut the bottom part of the dress down the middle. I made a simple little seam so it wasn't all raggedy. No Raggedy Ann seams for this dress.
The sleeves were breeze - I removed the button on the cuff while tacking it down so it would stay put. Forever. Amen.

Add a black tank, a pair of leggings underneath and a black belt and Shazaam! Wrap dress is, well, wrapped up! There are so many ways I could wear this - change the color of the tanks underneath and even throw on a pair of jeans. Go shopping at Target or have tea at the Ritz. Your choice. I'll follow your lead.

A Long Ago Wedding Dress

Isn't this so gorgeous? This is my pal's wedding dress and she was ready to release it to me for a makeover. There are so many directions I could take it . I could not resist all the lace and of course the pink.

There were many layers to the dress. The front had this overlay lace that covered the shoulders and neck area.

I wanted to make the lace really pop out and be noticed!
And of course what gown isn't complete without shoulder pads. Jeez.
Not only were there shoulder pads but get a load of these little additions to puff up the shoulders even more. These had to go.
I decided to cut all the top lace off except for a v-shaped area by the neckline. I had plans to make the lace pop out and be noticed.
Major surgery here as I cut the dress into a long top. There were multiple layers to be reckoned with.
So off came the sheer overskirt.

Then the under part of the dress was a goner.
I carefully excavated the long sleeves.
With the sleeves gone, this is what was left - delicate and swanky all in one feel swoop! Now we're talking~ I pinned the underarm seams so they wouldn't fray and sewed them down nice and delicately.
Now to work on the neckline...As I mentioned I envisioned the lace neckline being the rockstar it deserves. So I gently pealed back the pink underblouse so just the lace would show through.
Peekaboo lace is all sewed up and ready to have its debut. Smashing!
I was afraid to use my machine with the sheer silky fabric so did the hemming by hand.
Big oops here - contrary to popular rumors, Martha Stuart I am not. I tried to iron the back of the creation and melted a bit of the lace. Luckily I had salvaged the sleeves so I trimmed a portion of the lace and carefully covered the damage done.
I glued it! Yeah ok, not exactly out of Vogue magazine but it worked. You'd have to look verrry closely to see the damage control. And it feels a tad stiff where the gluing occurred but I'm happy with the result.
Now I was ready to try the finished product on. Check out these peekaboo sleeves!
The neckline with the lace became the focal point. Look up close, go ahead. It's ok with me.
The back needed a slight adjustment to give the neckline room to breath so I unzipped it a couple of inches, folded and sewed it in place.
The belt was made from the sheer castoff (formerly the skirt portion of the dress). Now this dress-turned-tunic ushers in New Years Eve, not a long ago wedding!

Two into One

This outfit was in my friend's closet. I was so taken by the flowers. Flowers just make a girl happy.

Pesky shoulder pads do not however. My shoulders are just perfect the way they are. Set near my neck, help me lift bags from Costco, important things like that. I do not need anymore material in this area of my body.

The blouse had these 2 slits up the sides. I chose to sew them shut since the blouse was soon not going to BE a blouse...

Ok follow me on this one. I wanted to make a one piece dress. With the blouse as the top and the sleeveless dress as the bottom. SO, I cut the sleeveless dress in half saved the bottom portion and discarded the sleeveless part. What was left of the sleeveless dress was a skirt. Next I took the blouse and pinned it to that skirt. I wanted it to be more form fitted so once the blouse was sewn to the skirt, I took the sides in. (Whew, no one ever accused me of being an English major. Hope you could understand that process!)Once the bottom and top were partnered with the help of my trusty sewing machine, I cleaned up the seams and trimmed the excess from the waist area. Wish it could be THAT easy to do on our bodies. LOL

I then went about trimming excess from sides to make the seam, well, seamless! Tidy, didy.

Time for a brand new hemline.

I had enough excess material for the various places I nipped and tucked to make a belt.And here we have it folks! Two into one. Where have all the flowers gone? To my closet!