Little did I know that my Valentine's Day outfit would be this one when I first saw it!
I loved the florals and I loved the $2 price tag!
However, it was still feeling super 90s...
...and needed a little help to bring it away from potentially being a costume from Reality Bites...
I adjusted the length first. The dress fell at the cankle area, and even though it's swishy and flowy, I wanted to make it a little shorter.
I pinned the hem post-trim...
...and then worked on the back. I've seen so many cute dresses and shirts with open hearts on the backs and fronts of them like these guys...
...that I used those as my inspiration. I drew a heart on the inside of the dress, right next to the shoulder in a silver Sharpie.
Instead of keeping the heart completely open, I'm going to add some pink lace, to make the heart sheer-ish! I took clear nail polish and followed the heart outline. (I did this so the cotton dress wouldn't fray when trimming.)
After the polish was down, I trimmed out the heart...
...and pinned down lace to the open heart, from the inside of the piece.
I stitched my hem...
...and stitched my heart...
...and styled the dress to make it look more like something Taylor Swift would wear (which is totally a compliment I received today!)
I belted it, added some pale pink DKNY fishnets, along with a cardigan, some boots, and had my dress complete!
I love the hidden heart on my shoulder! It's like I have a tattoo!! A lace, non-permanent, tattoo!
The waist cinching was key and the metal flower clasp was a cute little tie in to match the dress print...
The tights were super subtle and they did a stellar job in keeping my legs warm!
The dress worked the day to night element quite well...
I added another layer on top of the cardi to make it really work after the sun set. I love my Valentine-y dress, and got to wear it for my favorite Valentines this year...
We made banana/chocolate dessert quesadillas that were amazing! I just might wear this dress again on Thursday...it'll be in the 70s and I can get away without wearing a cardigan so the little lace heart it totally prominent!!
