19 Days Til I Do!

Day 19 has arrived and oh do I love this dress! I especially love the sticky price tag attached to where my finger is pointing! 

Look at those lace sleeves!!

Look at the neck, waist and hem trim!!

And that train!!

The train was the first thing to go, but that was an easy removal of hook and eye closures. I think this will come in handy down the road!

I also went with Cherry Red dye for this dress - depending on the color took, the dress could turn out firey red, or a mix of pinkish. It turned out to be the latter and I was in love! Oh and before I dyed it, I removed the trim at the waist as well as the neck to keep those areas clean.

I wanted to go a bit shorter so I trimmed the dress to make it more of a cocktail length and pinned the raw edging to create a new hem. THEN, because of all the great feedback from Day 27 saying the shoulders felt a bit too puffy, I took out the extra pouf (the lovely fanned tulle as you can see below...) to minimize.

The pouf removal was the best decision I made! Next it was time to tweak the back of the dress. The button closure felt a bit dated, so I wanted to clean it up - I folded each side under to create a clean open back. The dress was fitted enough where this closure wasn't actually helping it stay closed. 

The last step was shortening the sleeves and then sewing everything into place!

From long and lacy to shorter and sleek!

This dress can go two ways - you can style it to be something you can wear to a cocktail party or a wedding with the right shoes and accessories OR you can dress it down a bit with brown heels, a denim jacket and a vintage red mesh purse for a fun dinner out with friends to celebrate your upcoming wedding! I went with option two! 😃

I loved the fit and the color turned out spot on. I'm obsessed with the shorter sleeves too! 

I can't wait to test this out with black kitten heels and a pashmina next time!

This is a total winner!

19 days til I do!

Remake: Blue Satin Bridesmaid Dress

You got the teaser of this fabulous blue party dress last week...

...and today it's time to see the upcycled results!

I started off by removing the pouffy sleeves.

Just to get an idea, this is the purplish discoloration underneath that was found under both sleeves. Cute, eh?

Once I got rid of both of the sleeves...

...the top portion of the dress looked just like this:

Because the trim is a bit much at the neck, I started to remove it with a seam ripper, right at the bust.

With the trim removed from the front of the dress, I was left with this train o'trim!!

To hide the leftover portion of the discoloration at the arms, I stitched down the layers of trim right under the armpits.

Now I'm still going to work with this frilly trim, but turning this dress into a halter and using these guys as the straps! I cut the center in half and moved on to tweaking the length next.

I want to make this fun and flirty, so a big portion of the length of the dress got cut off.

I pinned under the raw edges of the dress...

...and stitched down a new hem.

I ironed down the straps...

...then pinched and cinched the bust line, adding a safety pin to the center of the dress for a bit of ruching. My new party dress was complete!!

I love that this dress still has the party vibe essence! It still has a vintage-y feel, but it doesn't scream 80s anymore!

Those ruffles are hidden now!!

Except for a few hints of the ruffles in the back. I liked keeping the back of the dress' ruffles as they were, but it's always an easy tweak to stitch them down to match the area at the arms if I change my mind.

I think this makes a perfect wedding guest dress or one that's ready for a summer cocktail party.

Paired with a vintage shell purse and a pair of yellow BCBG shoes with bows, the accessories had just the bit of bold color flair to make the dress pop even more!!

After a long day of sewing, it's time to kick up my heels!!

Next time I have to remember not to lean all the way back when I'm sitting on a ledge right in front of succulents. Yep, there's now a band-aid on my back covering the little puncture wound. Oh the pains of fashion...

Jennifer's NDAD Creation

Jennifer submitted today's awesome project after seeing my remake of this lace dress...

...that I featured last May. (Click HERE for the full post!) I love hearing from you guys via email and in the comments section when you have similar dresses to the ones that I remake! So, seeing Jennifer's project made me super happy. Check it out...

This recreation was done five years ago but when I saw your do-over of the peach lace dress a little while back, I just had to respond. This is my wedding dress from my first marriage in 1986. Covered in the same lace as your dress. Imagine my shock! 

Fast forward to 2008. My daughter Caitlin was graduating high school and was looking for a different kind of vintage prom dress. We looked for months and even consulted a dress designer, but we were stuck until one day when we saw my old dress hanging in the closet.

Just for kicks she tried it on. Caitlin is shorter than me so the dress was too long, but other than that it fit to a T! But oh...that lace and those shoulder pads?!

Keep reading to see how J's wedding dress gets transformed!

We got out the seam ripper, and very carefully removed the lace from the top, including the sleeves. We shortened the straps, rented three crinolines for more poof in the skirt and VOILA...

...a beautiful, re-purposed prom dress that was totally my sassy girl's style!

One word - obsessed!! I just love this project so much. You were able to take something treasured from your life and turn it into something to be treasured again in your daughter's life. What an awesome way to repurpose your dress!! And, I love that this was a team effort! I want to hang with you girls next time. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

PS, here's a gorgeous shot that Jennifer included of her before her wedding, getting ready! Love this candid so much!! I think I wore that same floral headpiece for my communion!!