So this dress... The sleeves were just a little too tight with those shoulder pads!!

...but the pattern was fab!

I think this was the "camera shot me mid-speaking" moment where I was contemplating "what am I going to do to make this something I want to wear."

The ideas were flowing and something hit!

Let's just start off...how cool is this pattern up close?

To alleviate the tight sleeves, I opted to remove them along with the shoulder pads. With my seam ripper, I carefully took both sleeves off of the dress.

I thought the neck could use a little bit of flair. The pattern was bold and busy, so I decided to take some lace fabric panels I bought in the garment district for pennies, and affix them to the front of the dress.

I had two panels, so I placed them side by side to create one larger black panel.

I pinned the pieces to the dress and stitched them down.

I loved the pleats and the length and wanted to keep everything in place just because of how awesome the skirt moved when I walk. That's an obvious choice...leave the length because the skirt swishing is fun :)