Aloha Nui Oi

Everything about this dress beckoned for a tropical vacation. Gorgeous floral print, long flow-y muumuu business, sweet front full of delicate buttons, good sleeve potential. Don't need or like the strap action but had some ideas floating in my WISH-I-WAS-HAWAII-BOUND head of mine.

I opened the front seam a bit to give the bodice a little more room, then cinched the top right up to the buttons for flair appeal. Sewed down the seam to give it a permanent finish and got to work on the sleeves.

Remember the side straps? I decided to create a kind of tulip effect in the sleeve area. I twisted one strap and pinned it to the sleeve, scooping and gathering and reattaching the other end of the strap to the inside of the sleeve. Hard to explain so I'll let the picture do the talking! It made a drape-y effect that I ended up really liking.

I hemmed it a few inches to reduce the muumuuness and now it is cute as cute can be. Here I added a navy belt that I had in my closet and now I am ready to be wooed by a handsome ukulele player, sipping virgin mai tais and watching surfers off of Waikiki. Join me?