#21: Pink Dress

One of my first clothing transformations was a pink patterned dress. Two actually. I had been given 2 of the same dress as gifts from my mom and aunt. I liked the dress, but the spaghetti strap top was a too small. I tried to re-create how the top looked in the photo below.

Before x2 (with the help of Microsoft Paint)

What to do with 2 identical dresses with ill-fitting tops? Make them into 2 new pieces, of course!

Let's start with dress #1:

1) The dress had a built-in elastic belt that sat as an empire waist (around my ribcage) between the top and the bottom of the dress. I used a seam ripper to remove the top of the dress right above the elastic belt.

2) The dress was a bit wide, so I also took it in at the sides.

3) Lastly, I did a fake surge around the top edge of the elastic so it wouldn't fray.

Fake Serging

(I actually just went back and did this part a few days ago, as I just learned to fake-serge. Not to be confused with Surge the drink.

Surge Soda!

Serging is a way to make the edges of fabric all nice and neat. For example:

Serged ends

You can buy a serger, but they tend to run quite expensive, so I learned how to do a fake serge by laying the edge of the material directly in the middle under the presser foot and using a zig-zag stitch so that the needle hits the fabric on one side, but not the other. That way the thread wraps around the edge of the fabric and seals it off neatly. Here's a simple video showing how it's done.)

That was all for dress #1. This is the end result.

New skirt

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On to dress #2:

1) I fully removed the top and the elastic belt and cut the skirt part to make it a little shorter. I also cut a thick strip off to save for later.

Save this strip

 
2) Next I sewed a new hem on the side I had cut.

2) Then I took it in quite a bit straight down the back to make a tube-of-sorts.

That was all I did for dress #2. This was the end result:

Tube top

I used to wear it only one way, but now I've realized that these are versatile pieces that can be worn many ways! It began looking something like this:

Before: Spaghetti strap empire waist dress

And now I can wear these pieces in at least these 4 ways:


1) Tucked in strapless dress

Strapless Dress

Covered Strapless Dress

2) A skirt

Belted Skirt

3) A mini skirt

Mini Skirt

4) A strapless top with headband (which could also be used as a belt!)

Strapless top with headband

So which look to you like the best? Let me know in the comments section below.

It feels good to revisit an old project and do new things with it. I've got a few more of these re-transformations in store for you down the line. We'll see what I find in my big bag of projects...

Until next time, blessings.