Now I just couldn't resist this graduation gown when I found it!! I know mine had to be returned promptly after graduation, but somebody kept theirs and somehow it made it to the pile sale which ultimately fell into my hands for a buck!!

I wasn't sure how this piece was going to turn out, if I was going to keep it long, rock a dress...but I knew that I had to try!! Plus it's a little sentimental too - I feel like there's a bit of graduating that will be happening because the end of my year is coming up soon. I'm just hoping I don't get left back :)

After trying the gown on and playing around with it, I'm going for a sleeved, capey look today. My first step was shortening the sleeves.

I cut close to half of the material off on the sleeves and then went to cutting the actual gown short. I took off about half of the material. There was a zipper down the front but I cut right across it as I wasn't wanting to keep it at all - I wanted a more drapey and flowy, non-zipped up piece.

I had so much leftover, that I took some of the excess, trimmed little strips off and and used them for a little crafty trick below.

First, I got my sleeves prepped to be given a new hem...

...and then I got to my little craft! I used that excess material from above to create little rosettes which I'm going to add to the neck area. All I did was hold the edge and just twist the fabric around my fingers. I pulled down some of the edges to make it look like petals and then pinned it in place.

I created a bunch more and then pinned them to the area at the neck and chest!

Got a needle and added blue thread and began hand sewing the rosettes down!

After the rosettes were in place, I went to the sewing machine, sewed up my edges and then had a flowy jackety/capelet.

It still looked graduation-y because of the billowy factor, but I loved the added rosette detail and also loved that the sleeves were a bit shorter as well.

Little close up on the flowers...which were SO easy to create!!

And during my prep/sew time, I enjoyed a little blog snack - Hello Kitty Marshmallows?! I know - A, who knew Hello Kitty made marshmallows? B, they were filled with strawberry jelly. C, they were weirdly delish!!