17 Days Til I Do!

Hello friends! Sorry for the delay in the series - I've been abroad prepping for the wedding and well the wifi just wasn't strong enough to upload all the imagery. So I'm going to get these in where I can! Thank you all for your patience!

This dress was one of my faves!

I used a portion of the dress on Day 25 to craft the super snazzy bag below but there was so much left to work with!

I just loved the full skirt. 

I had some ideas for this piece from the get go! 

I wanted to remove all the appliques (which I did), dye it graphite (which I did) and hopefully wear it with any basic t-shirt or a short sleeved cashmere sweater to snazz it up! (which I did...NOT!)

Sadly post dye, the skirt ended up looking like the below! I realized when I removed the appliques, there was still portions of glue on the skirt where they were applied. They weren't just sewn on, they were also glued!

So, what to do now? I still loved the idea of creating a skirt, but needed a different plan. Off to tie dyeing I went!

I took a kit with colors that would mesh well with the already dyed grey on the skirt. I was thinking black, blue and aqua would be the perfect match!

I wet the skirt, rubber banded the skirt and then got to dyeing! (Little trick - take a baking pan and line it with a plastic trash bag to keep all the colors together and from getting all over the place!

When I was complete, my skirt looked like this!

I let it sit overnight to fully saturate all the dyes...

...then de-rubber banded it, washed it out with cold water until the colors stopped running and then let it hang dry.

The outcome...

Pretty fantastic, right?

I would never have gone the tie dye route if it weren't for the little snafu with the glue spots! I'm actually super thankful this little issue came up because the skirt is just awesome now!

And I still have plans to wear it the same way! T shirt and short sleeved cashmere sweater (when it gets cold) here I come!

Such a fun upcycle here...can't wait to mix and match this skirt with everything!

17 days til I do!

18 Days Til I Do!

18 days! Today's dress was super soft and flowy!

The cuffs didn't snap for me...

...because they were too tight, but we can fix that!

The neckline was fabulous and you might not be able to see so well in this shot, but there's a few spots of sequin detailing.

There's the detailing!! I started with some dye, Navy Blue this time!

When the dress came out, it was more of a bluish / lavender color - not as dark as I was planning for, BUT it still turned out so pretty!

I started off with some trimming! I cut the length a bit to create more of a short and summery dress.

After pinning the bottom of the dress to prep for a new seam, I moved onto the rest of the piece. There was a ribbon that was falling apart sewn to the back of the dress that I removed along with the sleeves!

I just loved the lace detail and felt that the sleeves didn't totally do it justice. Then it was time to sew everything together!

Voila, new dress is done!

I just love how this turned out. The lace detail down the front pops now!

My ring matches this dress pretty awesomely too! (Thanks to my fiancé for calling that out to my attention and taking this lovely shot!)

The dress is so much lighter feeling and something that I would have bought off the rack. I love how the neckline is shaped the most!

We were off to one of our last dinner date nights before the wedding and the lovely servers and team at our favorite Italian restaurant treated us to some cannolis. 

I was obsessed with "Congratulations" written on the plate and then those cannolis...❤️ ❤️❤️ As a kid my favorite cake filling was cannoli! We used to go to this Italian bakery in my town for birthdays growing up and it's still one of my favorites! 

I also brought a leather jacket to wear on top of my dress for when it got a bit chillier later on in the evening. I think this is a super fun way to give this soft look a little edge. 

I just love the color - another one down! 

18 days til I do!

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!