This was a piece that got sent my way a bit back from my gal Alexandra in Canada! I was trying to figure out which way to go with it and finally came up with a plan! Alexandra wrote:
Hi! My roommate and I have been following your blog and love to see what you do. Knowing you are interested in vintage pieces, the other day I found in my basement (and washed for you) a vintage 80s dress that I either wore and cut a swatch out of the back for some reason, or bought it with the chunk out of it thinking I would patch it with a contrasting fabric and make it funky remaking it one day. (ha!)
I know I bought it at a designer discount place here in Toronto in the 80s. I know you usually work with dresses quite a bit bigger, so I hope this works and you like it. I know it is a bit more conservative than your usual prints, but after all it was the 80s!! I am interested to see what you might be able to do with it!
Challenge accepted! Time to get working!
I began by taking the sleeves off! With a seam ripper, I went around each of the arm holes...
...until both sleeves were gone!
I love the black and white plaid print, but I wanted to bring a bit of color into the piece. I'm obsessed with the way purple and yellow looks with black, so I found some amazing floral ribbon in those shades.
I decided to line the center of the piece with the ribbon and stitch it down. I took yellow first, pinned it around the waist, then followed with purple after, layering it a bit on top of the yellow.
I had black ribbon too, but just stuck to the primary color shades! With my colored thread ready to go...
...I began stitching the ribbon to the waist area and stitched new seems around the arm holes.
We were still left with the problematic missing swatch at the bottom of the piece. I decided to take a page from the bubble dress trend like Kate Walsh...
...and Marchesa...
...and go this route.
I took the hem and tacked it down around the waist from the inside of the piece. Also, because the hem has a longer diameter than the material at the waist, I did a little 'gather and tack' method. Basically every two inches or so, I folded back and pleated the next inch and kept doing this until the hem fabric was attached all the way around the waist.
The shirt turned out looking a little like this...
Comfortable and flowy for the breezy Southern California day.
I love the little pop from the bit of color at the waist.
And you'd think by this photo that the wind was blowing me away, but no...it was just me trying to change up the multiple shots that were being taken. Such a jokester...
Alexandra, thank you so much for forwarding this piece my way!! Love to Canada!! More on Alexandra here!
