There are certain brands I see over and over again in my thrifting adventures.
One of such brands is Kathie Lee. I usually find at least five of her unflattering-but-that’s-what-we-wore-back-then dresses in every thrift store trip.
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Does anybody else remember the Kathie Lee sweatshop scandal from the ’90s (and am I old for bringing this up)? I remember that being the moment when I realized how unethical the process behind how we get a lot of our clothes is. I had never even thought about it before.
When I put this dress on for my before pic, I noticed something was missing that I’d need to take into account as I planned my refashion strategy.
But how would I refashion this dress?
I considered keeping it as a dress or turning it into a skirt.
When Erin invited me for an afternoon walk, I decided it was time for a dress-to-strapless top refashion!
I have way more dresses than I do tops right now, so this seemed like the best option.
I began my refashion by trimming off that skirt.
You can see how the fabric from that waist detail thingy (technical term) covers the part I’m cutting off, which means no new bottom hem was required!
Next, I made a few more chops on the top of the dress.
After measuring the new top of my…er…top, I realized it was going to need to be a little bigger in order to fit me.
This meant I had to make another chop.
This was a dangerous move, friends. I was running the risk of this top being too short for me to want to wear.
I folded the top under to make a casing for elastic.
You can see that I only folded it under once, rather than twice which left me with an inner raw edge. Alas, I just couldn’t run the risk of using up any more fabric, or this strapless top would end up being too short for my tastes.
I left a 1″ gap to thread my elastic through.
I pulled out some elastic from my stash and wrapped some of it under my arms, then cut it to a length that felt comfortable.
Then, I used a safety pin to guide the elastic through its casing.
I stitched the ends of the elastic together and stitched that 1″ gap down.
And just like that, my dress to strapless top Refashion was complete!
I styled my new top with jeans, sunnies, my Born Payette wedges (soooo comfy), a vintage scarf, and a favorite leather tote bag.
Here’s a closer look!
And here it is from the back!
You can see where I replaced that missing button with one that was removed in earlier choppage. The top button is totally functionless, but still looks nice, I think!
While strolling through Shandon, we decided to stop by Craft & Draft for an outdoor glass of wine where we pondered what the future may bring.
It was a little chilly out, so I put on a light cardigan.
Benson Update: I’m happy to report he’s doing really well! His vet thinks he’ll be able to go off crate rest by this weekend, which is GREAT news! Keep those fingers crossed!
Cheers!
