Happy Birthday Phillip & Jamie: A Frumpy Collared Dress Refashion

When my friends and I decided to plan a surprise birthday party for two of our favorite gentlemen who have reached a certain *ahem* landmark age, we went with a (playful) funeral theme.  

This meant I needed something black, but not too severe for this fun fete!

Sadly, the only thing I had on my Refashion rack was this vaguely nun-ish number:

As I wash everything before I work with it, I was sad to see that cute collar got some very noticeable black color bleeding on it.  :/

At least I had those lovely pearly buttons!

To get started, I removed a shoulder pad.  

Yep.  Just one.  Apparently the previous owner for this frock had one muscle-y shoulder and one weak one.  😉

See those lame side tie thingies in the first pic?  Yeah…those went buh-bye as well.

Next, I carefully snipped off that discolored collar.  

Normally I would use a seam ripper to do this, but I knew I wanted to deepen the neckline for this refashion, so cutting off a little extra fabric wouldn’t hurt anything.

Next, I grabbed my seam ripper and got to work on those sleeves.

I watched the worst TV show of all time while I picked them off.

All this snipping and ripping left me with a bunch of raw edges to pin down, and that’s just what I did!

I stitched my new neck and arm holes down.

This dress was still too blousey for me, so I got to reshaping/tailoring!

I trimmed off the excess fabric, then did one more lil chop!

I stitched a quick hem, then sewed those two side tie thingies together to make a mini-sash!

Just like that, I was ready to run out the door to a wonderful party for two wonderful fellas!  🙂

Cheers!