Today's remake comes from my gal Emily! She knows how to rock the before pic poses too, by the way.

Here's the story behind my dress - I was browsing vintage dresses on Modcloth.com and Anthropologie's website one day, lamenting over my lack of spending money, when I remembered stumbling across your blog a few months earlier. I was so inspired by your creativity and step-by-step tutorials, I decided to try making my own vintage dress for less! I found this navy blue polka-dotted dress at Goodwill for $5. Despite its frumpy factor and the fact that it was ten sizes too big (literally!) I saw the potential for a cute sleeveless summer dress with a swingy skirt.

My mother-in-law wasn't so sure; I'm pretty sure she thought I'd lost it when I enlisted her help on the project!

Will Emily's MIL be right, or will Emily rock out the most swingy-est, summer dress around? (PS, inside tip...put your money on the latter!)

First, we had to get rid of the fabric overlay on the top. It attached at the shoulders, which meant that cutting it off at the seams and re-stitching them. The advantage of this was that it made the arm holes smaller. Next, we chopped off the puffed sleeves, took off seven inches from the bottom of the skirt, and took it in a couple inches on the sides.

Then we tackled the neckline. This was the scariest part, so I let my MIL cut out a nice scooped neckline.

She suggested that the thin fabric needed a facing to give it some stability, so I traced the curve onto solid navy cotton and cut out a three inch wide piece. I hemmed the sleeves and the skirt, and then with the leftover fabric I made a big bow and pinned it to the shoulder.