The Dress That Almost Beat Me

I started this dress in 2009 after my little girl turned 1.

Remember -- I've only recently dedicated myself to conquering the sewing machine. So I intended to do this by hand.

But it proved to be more than I could chew -- er, sew.

In the last few days, I've had sewing machine success. I am by no means good, but I am passable. PASSABLE! (Side note: Anyone else watching this season of Project Runway? That girl learned to sew FOUR MONTHS AGO -- as in, when she decided to try out for the show. Crazy.)

So I brought the dress back out and decided that today was the day.

But can we just think about this for a second? I started this for my daughter when she turned 1. She'll be 3 next month. Measurements ... not quite the same. And I'd already cut the fabric.

Let that stop me? Nah.

Good idea? Nah.

But I did it. And I should have added a zipper. But I didn't have one. And I don't know how to put on on a dress. So I painted it on my daughter and then had to peel it off her.

But cute, no?

Oh, she's also 16. Did you know that?

I'm happy, too, love.

Refashionin' it up

So this is a refashion that I did a few months back. I LOVE it. Unfortunately, it shrunk a bit in the wash (might have been dry clean only ... I don't follow "rules" as often as I should when it comes to laundry. Call me wild.) ... so I need to update it with something at the bottom. But still, LOVE.

Here's what it looked like when I thrifted it ($3, what, what?):

Jealous of the sexy? Kindly ignore the dust under the couch. It's clean now.

So, sure. It was a little to the left of hideous. But I adored the buttons and the lacy collar could be utilized better. The shoulder pads, obviously, had to go, but the dress had POCKETS. I mean. Come on. How do you pass up casual pockets?

Alright, so here's my dirty secret. I don't know how to work my sewing machine. I got one for our wedding and it's been collecting dust. I learned to use a sewing machine in 6th grade home ec, but man, that's been a while. I've gotten good at sewing by hand.

So, for this dress I used hem tape and my two hands.

Here's the after:

Look! A white crayon!

Not bad, right? I took off the collar and used the gorgeous lace as pocket details, removed the shoulder pads and made the neckline v-shaped. I also shortened the dress quite a bit, which really helped the overall look.

I'm so happy with this dress. I was able to keep the parts of it that I loved (look at the buttons!), and make it age-appropriate. Love.