This dress was not very exciting when I first purchased it for a dollar.
Also, what you can’t really see here are all sorts of teeny tiny cigarette burn holes all over the skirt. I tried to photograph them, but they just wouldn’t show up. Whoever owned this one was EXTREMELY careless whilst ashing her ciggies, lemme tell ya. Thanks to the stupid holes, I was going to have to turn this dress into a new top.
First off, I cut off that hole-y skirt.
Then, there were these bad boys to deal with.
The neckline wasn’t so comfy or attractive either. I decided to V-neck the heck out of it.
Almost done! I sewed the V down, and then added about a 1/2 inch of ruching right under the V to make it a little less plain.
Next, I needed to get back to that skirt. This fabric was fray-tastic, so I broke out my pinking shears (those funny zigzag scissors) t0 go over where I had initially cut the length off. Then I pinned it under and sewed my new hem. This is a “quick and dirty” way to make a hem that won’t fray. I also saved a scrap from the cut-off skirt to sew a sash for my waist.
After hemming the top, I still wasn’t quite done yet. Those sleeves needed to be shortened. I decided to go with a 3/4 length sleeve. After pinning and sewing it, all that was left to was to press the pleats at the bottom of the top, as well as my new hems at the sleeves and neck…
…It all seemed so simple…I mean…what could possibly go wrong? I started to press one of the sleeves when tragedy struck.
*WARNING* The below photo is VERY graphic and not for the faint of heart!!!!
D’OH!!!!!! I completely forgot that I had left the iron on its HIGHEST POSSIBLE SETTING! I had barely touched it to the very polyester fabric when it burned a massive hole into the innocent sleeve.
As if this dress hadn’t suffered enough after all the burn holes. 🙁
Luckily, this was an easy fix. I just hacked off the sleeves a little more and gave them new hems. After carefully checking that the iron was on its lowest setting, I finished the job.
Now I have a cute new top to wear to work and for my usual Wednesday Delaney’s lunch with Alex!
Oh yes, and FYI…Delaney’s in 5pts is awesome for lunch, as their menu is buy 1 get 1 at lunchtime. A perfect pick-me-up for hump day…along with my pretty new top! 🙂
