ReFashionista
Creating now.
From 80’s Dropped Waist to ’18 Good Taste
Has anyone else noticed a sudden influx of indigo and white patterns in winter fashion this year? While I rarely (as in extremely rarely) ever buy anything new, I still keep an eye out for general trends (even if I usually choose to ignore them). When I saw this sad and dated frock, I just new I could bring it into this decade!
The pattern is pretty, but the fit is lacking, and the dropped waist is more frumpy than elegant for this dress. Plus, I noticed a pesky coffee stain that didn’t come out in the wash!
A radical restructuring had to happen if this dress was to be salvaged.
Time to get cutting!
I cut the skirt off the dress, along with that stained part of the shirt part. Then, I cut the shirt part from the skirt and cut the gathered top part of the skirt off too. This left me with a LOT of skirt fabric, which I doubled up and folded in half, along with the top.
Time to reattach all the things! But first, let’s get this dress into shape, shall we?
Using one of my favorite thrifted tshirt dresses as a template, I snipped around the outside.
Now it’s time to put it all together. All those snips left me with a skirt front and back, and a top part with open sides (but with the shoulder/top sleeve part still intact. I first attached the skirt parts to the shirt parts (Right side pinned to right side).
I stitched them together once…
Then I stitched them together again, this time folding that seam down so it would lay flat.
Now to close up those sides! I pinned them down, then ran each side under the needle.
After a quick press, my new dress was ready to greet the world!
I decided to pair my new dress with my favorite $1 thrifted vest and a $2 thrifted pair of booties.
I wore my new dress to meet up with my friend Dan at The Whig for the debut of this year’s Hopslam!
While there, I encountered a young fellow who is a fan of my fella Brian’s Twitch show wherein he plays a not-very-nice nerdy vampire (Yes, Brian is a nerd, but he’s my nerd and I love him).
He couldn’t believe Brian lives here in Columbia, and that he was talking to his girlfriend. “You mean you live with Spootnik (his Twitch moniker). I’m sorry, I’m just really starstruck right now. I mean, you’re cool too…but Spootnik!”
We plan on having him over for dinner.
Brian frequently jokes that folks stop me in public fairly frequently to tell me they like my blog, so it was pretty flippin’ cool to run into a fan of his. 🙂
Cheers!
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48 thoughts on “From 80’s Dropped Waist to ’18 Good Taste”
I think I’m Loving it without the vest. Gosh it looks Smashing!!!!!!
That’s amazing! The dress and Brian’s fan!
The tighter sleeves are everything! Love it. I want this dress 🙂
Adorable. Great tutorial too.
Turned out great!
I love this dress! You are so talented and creative. Thanks so much for sharing.
Absolutely smashing! I am always so impressed by how you see the new fashion within a frumpy out of date dress.
I love your results! You made a frumpy dress look so modern with the right acessories. Great Job!
Looks GREAT all on its own! Wouldn’t know it was the same dress!
Looks amazing. I adore your blog so much!
So so glad to see you did a refashion! This one is too cute. I love the result! The pattern, the shape of the garment, the colors, everything!
Everything looks good except the Hopslam, I hate IPA’s and over hopsy beers!!! Nice refash tho.
Totally in love with this dress, it looks fantastic and thrilled to see a new refashion too.
Such a beautiful pattern. Lovely update done to the dress! Great story about fans loving both you and Brian’s work!!
very cute! Happy to surprise to see your post.
Great style, love the vest with it. Always love receiving your refashion blog posts!
So lovely to see a new refashion from you!!! You’ve made my day <3 xxx
Love it
You never cease to impress. The dress is marvelous.
This is my favorite thing you’ve ever done! I love this dress! Sewing terrifies me, but I so wish I could do it!
That is you ur best refashion yet! It is adorable on you!
So cute. And it’s not awkwardly short! Good job
This is one of my favorites. I love the print!
Absolutely adorable! I also want to say thanks for posting this and getting me to want to give sewing a third try. Fingers crossed I don’t give up because it’s not perfect lol
Super cute! I love the colors and pattern on this one.
Love it!
What a sweet surprise! I love that you didn’t lop off the sleeves and change the neckline this time. It looks so cute and comfy!
I love this new design you rock girl, this is so cute.
I love the blur’ o’ vision so cut.
Catherine
Absolutely love it! You are my hero!
I think I OWNED that dress in the 80’s! Was the brand Bechamel ? 🙂 It might have been in the 90’s. I unexpectedly went from teaching physical education (read: shorts, t shirts, warm-ups, tennis shoes) to teaching 6th grade (read: needing to buy a bunch of appropriate, dowdy classroom attire asap).
P.S. Your makeover is so cute!
You nailed it! The before dress is absolutely 90s “dowdy teacher” attire!
This is one of the best you have ever designed…love it.
Very cute results. I might leave the vest at home though. Unless it’s chilly down there!
So happy to be seeing a refashion. Just lovely.
Love it.
Amazing revamp & the sleeves are perfectly tailored.
I love your refashions! You inspire me to repurpose my own closet full of clothes and of course sew!!!! Love the new dress too!!!
You AND the dress are lovely!
I agree, blue and white has been everywhere lately!
Beautiful turnout!!!!
Smiled when I saw your email, knew you wouldn’t disappoint! Go girl!
I do love a bit of altering and thrifting. Nicely done, it’s a lovely result
That is adorable! I wouldn’t have thought the little bit you cut off the sleeves and sides would have made much of a difference, but it made a crazy huge difference! I liked it without the vest, but I’m kinda lazy with my clothes, and the only layering I tend to do is throw a hoodie on over everything or a coordinating thermal under, so I’m definitely not one to know!
Love it! It looks so awesome.
I recently with your guidance from your posts turned my 90s corduroy sack dress into a mini dress and I got so many compliments and told them of your blog. Wish I could share pictures because I actually made TWO dresses from it!
This was an amazing transformation! I really love the fabric pattern and the new silhouette is just so sleek and cute! You can wear it all seasons! What do you do with the extra fabric and shoulder pads you’ve collected?
WOW!!!!! I love it!!
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