Yacht Rock Dress
When I received a pair of tickets in the mail for the annual Free Times Best of Columbia Party, I was delighted and surprised! I started freelancing with them this year, but still didn’t expect to be invited to one of THE best parties of the year!
This year’s theme was “Yacht Rock”, and I had just the nautical number for the evening!
“Not”ical.
Oh dear. This would not do. Those shoulder pads! That terrible fit! And what about these?!?
Just say “No” to bows!
My first priority was to get rid of those massive pads!
Don’t worry guys! You’ll make a swell sunglasses case later!
I knew I needed to raise that dated waistline. The quickest and easiest way to do this was to chop off the top! I wanted to keep the functionality of the back zipper, so I made sure the pull was on the bottom part before I cut.
How’d my foot get in the shot?
I closed up that raw edge…
Pin it all around, then stitch it!
You can see where I folded that zipper under twice just like the rest of the dress. Don’t worry. If you have a good strong needle, it’ll sew over it, and you’ll be fine. You might have to sew a hook-and-eye closure above it, but luckily I didn’t need to.
After I stitched that top raw edge down, I needed to sew down that front placket. This dress was about to get super-fitted, so I really didn’t want any gappage!
Stitch it down!
I tossed my dress on my form inside-out and got it fitted!
Shaping up!
I stitched down each side…
Whirrrr!!!
…then replaced one of the buttons that fell off in the refashioning process…
Just a quick bit of stitchery!
…and added on a little something extra to the bottom hem!
Wait…what is this sorcery???
Notice what’s wrong? I didn’t! :/
Now I’m ready to board the yacht!
Ahoy!
This party was a BLAST! I had so much fun hanging out with some of the coolest people in Columbia!
…like Kaitlin and Erin here!
Or Best Local Artist runner-up, That Godzilla Guy and his lovely wife!
Or lovely local actress, Evelyn!
Even my buddy Ellis made a showing!
Ron and I sharing a prom-esque moment…
Of COURSE one of the men behind Bourbon came out to celebrate!
I had a fantastic evening, and my fingers are crossed that I get invited next year too! 🙂
Photobooth Shenanigans!
Cheers!
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Tags: Nautical Dress, Sleeveless dress refashion, Yacht Wear, Year 5
Soooooo Cute!
…i think you spelled your name wrong 😮
Gah! My sewing machine needs a spell check! Guess it’s time to start unpicking! :/ *sigh*
Eh, let it go and see if anyone notices the “H” is missing. If so, they must be very interested in you to notice such a small detail. I LOVE your page, it’s so much fun
! I have shared your link with a few women who I know enjoy your site as well! :o)
The only constructive comment I would venture to say about this great navy n red dress is that I think closer button placement on the front would suit your petite size better, have more impact and a little authority without losing any of the fun. (yet another small detail) IMHO, only. What do you think?
Adorable dress but you misspelled fashionista. Oooops.
Is the Refashionista embroidery on the bottom missing a letter?
Yup. It sure is. *hangs head in shame*
You look gorgeous and it looks like it was a fab party!
That was a smart refashion!
I really liked those bows… can I have ‘em?
The dress looks awesome! That necklace is cool too, can you post a pic of it? Did you make it?
Thank you! The necklace is by a local artist by the name of Cindy Saad. You can check out more of her lovely pieces right here: http://www.cindysaad.com/wire1.htm
OMG!!! You rock! I am going to try to re-fashion a top this weekend. I hope I get the same results that you do.
You GO Sophie!! If you like it, please share with us. If you don’t, recycle it and move on and try another one and have FUN with it. and share what worked and what didn’t, would love to learn along with you. :o)
You really are very creative in seeing something incredible out of outdated fashions. I enjoy seeing what you imagine. Keep up the great work.
Where did the H in refashionista go? (I’m a proofreader :p)
I’m pretty sure it went to “Hell”, LOL!
Especially if you’re from London, like me. We drop our haitches all the time 🙂
Was there a zipper in the back that you were able to leave in tact? How did it zip/close in the back?
Love it!
another huge success. PS – may have found a solution to one of your pet hates. Underarm sweat stains. If you dissolve 3 or 4 aspirins in a bowl of water and leave the gross thing to soak for a good number of hours, the stains normally disappear. I’ve sometimes had to soak a second or 3rd time but normally a 3 or 4 hour soak does it
Just awesome as usual! You are an inspiration to the world – don’t stop.
I love all of your refashionings, but do you ever use someone that isn’t quite as petite as you, and something that isn’t always strapless? I’m not very petite, nor am I young enough to wear some of the stuff that you refashion. I would love to see some stuff for slightly older and fuller women.
She clearly refashions all the garments for her own use. Maybe try refashioning your own stuff?
I think she had a few different sized RF makeover models when she was on GMA. Guess it’s up to us to apply her Refashionista fun to clothing our own different bodies. (Takes a LOT more fabric these days for me, LOL!) Or maybe she will have a contest where the winner gets to RF with her and learn some fun cutting and whirring lessons while ending up with smart fun fashion. hinty hint hint lol. :o)
Yeah, that wouldn’t make any sense. She’s making clothes to wear herself — why would she do something too big and too old for her?
Awesome job! At first I thought you were going for one of those super high fitted waists with it but the surprise of it becoming a strapless number left ne totally impressed. If you add some mouse ears and change the buttons to yellow you could also go out as Mickey Mouse, if the need ever arised, lol.
Dang. You did it again.
Love, Love
Very clever and cute as usual! I am petite like you but not as young, I would simply add straps made from the cut off material, perhaps attaching a button from the dress on each strap. (Older women could wear a little shrug sweater to hide their wiggly upper arms if need be.) I think your strapless bra is peeking out in a couple of those photos, you might want to try “bra tape”.
Keep ‘em coming, I love all of your refashions, they are truly inspirational!:)
I actually pulled my sewing machine out of storage a few weeks ago and have redone a few items of clothing already with more projects waiting.
Great job, since I can’t wear strapless, the ladies always need a bit of help, I never think of that as an option, you really found a great dress from that other thing and it looks like you were able to keep the pockets, which are so coveted these days, I don’t know why designers still don’t add them to garments since all us ladies have our phones on us at all times.
Adorable on you!
You are fantastic. I cannot sew but love watching you do your magic.
It’s so cute that no one will notice the misspelling. 🙂
This is another mega-great one! Well done, Skipper!
I love your stuff, don’t take this the wrong way but if I weighed 3 pounds like you do I would be smoking hot as well – wish you would show us size 16 – 18 ladies what we could do 🙂
Extrapolate, extrapolate, extrapolate! (Sorry, couldn’t resist the cheesy Dr. Who reference 🙂
Really cute. You always amaze me at what you can make out of something no one would wear! Thanks for showing us your projects.
Beautiful!
ADORABLE!!! I love your creative eye!!!…I find myself getting excited for the finnale! ..sew on..
This is so cute, great job!
This dress is adorable. Nobody would ever guess its humble beginnings. I love it.
The typo adds character. I read it with a French accent in my head. :o)
Love it!!!! I see so many gastly dresses like this on dollar racks. So happy to see you do something amazing with it. Great idea adding your name to the dress. How about designing some designer labels for your unique creations.
You are freakin brilliant. I could not picture this dress turning out to be cute and I love the finished product. Love your blog. It’s very inspiring. Makes me want to get back into refashioning.
That is a perfect yacht party dress. Wow I’m so impressed first, that you were able to find it at thrift store in time for party and then so impressed with how you made it so pretty for this party. You have such a cute figure. Just love receiving your refashion posts!
The dress rocks! Did I miss something, or is the “refashionista” missing the “H” in the embroidery? Not to be “picky” 🙂
Beautiful! Looks like you just bought that off the rack!
You are always inspiring! Thank you for helping people see how cool it is to refashion! Amazeballs!
Wow that dress turned out Amazeballs! It is SUPER cute, looks fab on you 🙂
CUTE! For the person who didn’t want it to be strapless, I would say there was probably enough fabric that she cut off this one that could be made in to straps and since it has a zipper up the back it would work fine. Straps are super easy to make (and as I type this I’m getting ideas about a dress I bought that shrunk…)
Jillian-you must have the worlds biggest sunglass case collection by now!
Another wonderful transformation
Did you mean to skip the letter h on your dress?
Y’know…I DID just stop dating a fella whose first name started with an “H”. Mayhaps something was going on in my subconscious mind????
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