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Reunited: ’80s Jumpsuit to Dress Refashion

May 26, 2013 / 84 Comments
Memorial Day Dress
A Sleeve Reprieve Dress

About a decade ago (OH MY GOD I FEEL SO OLD!!!), I was something close to a Junior at the University of South Carolina (Go Cocks!).  

I was not the most studious student, folks.  :/  While my dedication to my major (Theatre) was strong, I couldn’t quite make myself give any flips at all about other subjects like…say…Statistics.  

While I could just accept personal responsibility for my inability to choose studying over partying, I prefer to blame the company I kept at the time….specifically two of my best buds, Mike and Travis.  ðŸ™‚

We hadn’t gotten together to hang out in a couple of years, and decided it was time to relive our gloriously misspent college days!

And I knew JUST what I wanted to wear!

I pulled this pink 1980s jumpsuit from my refashion rack!

refashionista 80s Jumpsuit to Dress Refashion before
Who decided this ever needed to be a thing????

Seriously?  What is this about?  

I think it’s supposed to be some sort of sleepwear/loungewear thing, but I honestly haven’t a clue.  I just hope someone was fired for this garment’s conception.

It’s hard to know where to start with something like this, but knew I wanted to dye this jumpsuit and I knew I didn’t want it to remain a jumpsuit.

Luckily, I was already dying some of my faded black T-shirts to get them looking nice & new again.  

I tossed my jumpsuit into the dye bath as well with a box of black dye!  

box of black rit dye
Going back to black!
washing machine with dye bath
Hop on in!

After the dye bath, I began the process of turning this jumpsuit into a proper dress.  

First, I removed just a bit of length from the legs.  

This will make the whole thing easier to work with.

cutting off part of the legs
Spock helped! 🙂

Then, I trimmed the seams from the crotch allll the way down each leg.  I did the same for the back as well.

trimming crotch seams on jumpsuit
Trimmy trim trim!

Progress!

I put my future dress on my dress form and got to pinning!

First, I pinned the open front and back seams to make a skirt.

pinning front of skirt
See?

The sides got taken in a smidge as well!

taking in sides of dress on dress form
Getting it nice and fitted!

I stitched all of this down on my machine, trimmed off the excess fabric with my pinking shears, and was almost done!  ðŸ™‚

I put my dress on and pinned it where I wanted to make my final chop!

cutting fabric from bottom of dress
Just a litttle more!

Then, I hemmed that bottom raw edge, by pinning it down, then running through my machine!

hemming bottom of dress
Whirrrrr!

Now that dress is ready for a happy reunion with my college chums!  ðŸ™‚

'80s Jumpsuit to Dress Refashion after
I must say, I’m rather pleased! 🙂

I styled my $1 dress with a $1 thrifted belt and a pair of TOMs (which cost a good bit more than $1).

It was great getting to hang out with my old roommates/pals!

Travis, Mike, and Jillian at table
Love these guys!
Mike and Jillian
Hey, Mike!
Travis and Jillian
Hi there, Travis! 🙂

Many beers were consumed…

flight of beers on table
…but mostly tiny beers!
two small glasses of beer
Seriously.
Jillian and Mike drinking beer
Take THAT, liver! 😉

Much fatty food was consumed!

Jillian eating burger
Nomburger!

And much happy reminiscing and catching up occurred!  ðŸ™‚

Mike, Jillian and Travis at table
Toniiiiiight….We’re not young…;)

Cheers to old friends!  ðŸ™‚

Refashionista '80s Jumpsuit to Dress Refashion before and after
Memorial Day Dress
A Sleeve Reprieve Dress

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