I found a doozy, friends!!

This dress was ruffle-y, from the 80s/early 90s brand All That Jazz, and patterned like crazy!!

I did like all the ruffles going on, however it was a bit too much with the black/lavender/beige/white pattern that felt a bit jungle-ish.

I like the bones of the dress and think it can be brought out of the early 90s, because right now I'm still hearing Hootie and the Blowfish in the background :)

I began with my scissors and got cutting!!

I want to make this two pieces - I'm going to use the top part today, so I trimmed the piece in two, following the seam below the top ruffle. Post-trim, I had all this leftover...

...but will be reusing soon! The top was separated...

...and next came the removal of the big shoulder pads! I took my seam ripper and began to cut those stitches keeping them attached!

Later thick pads!!

Once the pads were out, I put the top on and cinched the area right underneath each arm. Basically I gathered a bit of the ruffle action and cinched it together to make the ruffle-ing more prominent at the shoulders instead of at the body. I just used some safety pins so I can remove and play around with it differently next time!

I paired the top with a thick elastic belt, just to break up the pattern a bit and headed off for some sausages and beer to celebrate JMT's birthday!