When a coworker sent an all staff email saying he had a couple of tickets to the Palmetto Health Foundation’s Festival of Trees Gala that were up for grabs, I was very thankful that most of my other coworkers were at a meeting (meaning: I was the first person to say “Heck Yeah!”).
Tickets for this fancy schmancy black tie affair sell for $75 a pop, and I’m really quite poor.
There was just one little problem– I really didn’t have anything to wear for a formal event, and it was that night.
Eep!
Luckily, I had this shimmery number in my “to be refashioned” bin! Revente’s Last Call gave it to me for free, as it was too dated to sell, and they knew I could do something to save it! 🙂
I know…I know! I obviously can’t wear this dress as-is to hobnob with the upper crust. But…I only had an hour to make this work! Yikes!
I immediately got to chopping!
That’s a lot of chopping! Now it’s time to take this from frumpy to form-fitting and close up all those raw edges!
I pinned my new neckline under…
…and then stitched it up! I used a small zigzag stitch.
Then, I took the whole thing in 3″ on each side.
I cut off the excess fabric, then got to work on the back of my dress.
I fixed up those arm holes too.
For my last trick, I pulled out a spool of grosgrain ribbon!
I stitched two lengths of ribbon to the front of my dress to make it a halter.
I took a leftover fabric scrap from one of the side seams that I took in and tied it around my bust, adding my favorite brooch beside the knot.
My dress looked nice, buuuuut, I really wanted something longer for this event. I didn’t have time to add on to the dress, so instead I just put a pretty gold iridescent skirt under it– problem solved! 🙂
This was such a fun event! I brought my pal Amy along and we had a blast nibbling tasty treats, drinking delicious cocktails, and checking out some gorgeous trees! 🙂
Seriously…these trees are pretty amazeballs.
I placed a bid on a painting I found particularly awesome. I’ll know if I won it on Sunday (fingers crossed!).
I love dressy events, because it’s always fun to check out what everyone else is wearing! 🙂
Amy’s dress is pretty fab, too (and it has POCKETS!!!)!
I always think it’s funny when people wonder where I find the time to refashion. I think I might actually be saving myself time by not having to run to stores every time I need something for an event and having to try on an endless series of frocks.
Instead, I can just grab things that I think have potential from thrift stores without taking much time at all, refashion them, and have something totally original and new to wear that doesn’t cost my wallet or the planet!
It’s a win/win! 🙂
Cheers!
