One Dress, Three Ways: Fake Vest Edition III: A Dress Refashion 1
Dress Refashions,  Refashions

One Dress, Three Ways: Fake Vest Edition III: A Dress Refashion

January 16, 2016 / 78 Comments
Cathi's Reader ReFash
A Funky Flashback in 1970s Polyester

As promised, here is the thrilling conclusion of One Dress, Three Ways: Fake Vest Edition III!

If you’re wearing a hat, I suggest you hold on to it!

Er…actually it’s not that exciting, but I’m rather fond of the final refashion for this sad faux accessorized frock!

I'm much happier in my new life.
I’m much happier in my new life.

My first refashion was a no-sew!

My second refashion was a crop top!

But what did I have up my refashioned sleeve for the third iteration of this dress?

A crop top is fun and all, but I don’t really want to wear them very frequently. Whether it’s my age, or my desire to eat an eggplant parm sub at any given time without worrying about carrying an obvious food baby, they’re just not really my style anymore.

It was time to go back to a dress with this. But a different dress. A better dress.

Two shall become one again soon!
Two shall become one again soon!

Alright. Allow me to apologize for the craptastic “during” photos in this post. In my absentmindedness, I abandoned my laptop (complete with memory card) at work, and had to use my phone’s camera. :/ I have since purchased a new card. I am now writing this post on my fella’s PC, where I am quickly realizing how much I love my Mac. *Sigh* #thestruggleisreal

I took the discarded skirt and cut a hunk off the top.

Chop!
Chop!

I chose the chop point after putting the crop top on, and then decided how long the skirt part of my new dress needed to be. I cut from the top so I could just use the existing bottom hem, rather than create a new one.

Remember how I left a raw edge on the top and how I told you it wasn’t a big deal? Here’s why:

SERGE!
SERGE!
I have the urge. The urge to serge!
I have the urge. The urge to serge!

The machine you see above (A serger) cuts fabric and overlocks the edge so it doesn’t fray.

When you’re done, the edge looks like a non-blurry version of this:

My phone is from 2009. I'm not kidding.
My phone is from 2009. I’m not kidding.

I also serged the top of the skirt part.

Next, I cut the skirt down the side to match the top. You’ll also see where I’ve turned the back of the top into the front of the dress. Now it’ll have a zipper front! Separating the skirt from the top in refashion #2 meant the original zipper was severed. That means I need to be able to slide into this dress, which means it needs to be fairly free in the waist.

Are you thinking 1920s? Because I am!

See?
See?

I stitched up that side.

Whirrr!
Whirrr!

Time to bring skirt and top back together again!

I pressed the serged side of the skirt under, like so:

See?
See?

Then, I pinned the shirt and the shirt together, like ya do.

Almost done!
Almost done!

A quick whirrrrrrr followed!

Final step!
Final step!

I think my new dress is all sorts of 1920’s (casual) fabulousness!

IMG_0288
Look…I moved the squid painting so you can see my dress/the bad paint job on this wall better! 🙂
Come cloooser...
Come cloooser…

I accessorized with my fun steampunk octopus necklace a good pal gave me about a year ago. 🙂

He doesn't know why he's steampunk. He just is.
He doesn’t know why he’s steampunk. He just is.

Sooooo…Which one is your favorite?

beforeafter

Cheers!

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