Est. 2010
A Finicky High-Low Hem Dress Refashion
Let’s just jump right in to the most obvious news I have to share, as demonstrated by my before pic for this Refashion.
While styling my hair the other day, a big clump came out in my hand. “Oh helllllll no!” I exclaimed and reached for the clippers.
It felt surreal and gross, and now I can’t stop thinking I look like this:
While I can’t Refashion my hair (or CAN I???), I can Refashion this dress!
This dress isn’t bad. The print is really fun, and I liked the neckline and sleeves.
However, that cream color washes me out, and I thought it would look better shorter. But how to shorten it without losing that awesome print near the bottom?
Let’s dye it!
This dress is polyester, so I knew it wouldn’t take dye very well. You can read more on why some fabrics dye better than others here. This didn’t really bother me though, as all I wanted was a subtle change.
I reached for these.
I tossed my dress into its comforting warm bath. I used about three parts black dye and 1 part brown dye. Black dye can render blue-ish purple, so I thought the brown would warm it to a more complex hue.
After my dress was rinsed and dried, I was met with this.
Ewwwwwwww! Pit stains! How did I not notice them before?
Of course, dye sets into stains more than unstained fabric, which is why I never advise using it to try to cover stains. It’ll just make them more noticeable.
I’m not sure how I missed the fact that my thrifted dress was a grody pitted out nightmare, but I wasn’t ready to give up on it just yet.
Let’s take it in!
While I had originally planned on keeping this dress blousy at the top, it looked like the only way for me to nix those pits was to make it really fitted, so I could sew around them.
It was worth a shot!
I ran each side of my dress through my sewing machine.
I cut off the excess fabric (BYEEEEE Pits!), and was ready for my next step!
I just wasn’t sure what that step was going to be.
My Very Weird High-Low Hem
I could have cut some of the fabric from above that bottom area I liked and then reattached the bottom area to the newly-shortened top area.
But I decided to try something different that I wasn’t even entirely sure would work.
Fortune favors the bold, right?
Here’s where it gets weird.
So, I knew I wanted a high-low hem, BUT I also wanted that black floral part to be on the front of my dress. So, I made the front part a good bit shorter than I would want it end up being so I could add the black part to it.
Then, I fit this part under the front of my dress.
I used a wavy stitch to attach this part to the front of the dress. I ended up testing several stitches on the leftover scraps, as this stretchy thin fabric was tricky to work with.
The idea is, I want to attach the pieces to each other while keeping the front flowy/not messing up the drape of the fabric.
I stitched carefully along the curve.
This left me with some ugly raw edges around the front of my high-low hem that needed to be taken care of. I stitched this down using the same wavy stitch as the top!
After ironing everything down, I was done!
Look at my finicky high-low hem dress now!
That’s right guys! I am now a proud owner of a few wigs!
I’m sure I’ll get used to sporting a bald noggin, but might as well have a little fun, right?
I have named each of my wigs and assigned personalities accordingly. I can’t wait for you to meet them all!
All in all, I’m fairly satisfied with this Refashion. It’s far from my favorite (I’m not sure if my high-low hem entirely works), but I’m glad I tried something a little different.
A lot of you have been asking how I’m feeling.
I’m happy to report that after the first week of chemo, a lot of the unpleasant side effects like chemo brain and bone pain went away. I’ve been feeling almost normal since then. 🙂
This Thursday I go in for Round 2. I’m glad I at least have a better idea of what to expect this time.
I know it will be tough.
But so am I.
Cheers!
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