Feelin’ Fierce in Fuschia

Even I had my doubts when I bought this frightening fuschia flop for a buck.       

 

The color really isn’t my bag, but I liked the crispness of the fabric and I really wanted a bright shirtdress with a full skirt.  The only possible contender I found was this hunk of pepto dismal.       

The first thing I had to do was remove a few extremities.       

 

 

Including this really absurd pocket with some sort of coat of arms embroidery on it       

 

 

My work had only just begun.  Next, I desperately needed to take the top of the dress in…a good bit.   I like marking where I’m going to be sewing with chalk before I pin it.  I also measure the taking in area on both sides with my sewing gauge to make sure both sides are even.       

 

Then I pinned along the chalk line.       

       

Once both sides were pinned, I sewed along the chalk line on each side, then cut off the excess material.       

Next, I needed to fix the newly shortened sleeves.  I decided to go with a rolled look by rolling the sleeves twice and pressing them.  To make sure they stayed rolled up, I sewed them down like so on the bottom of the sleeve.       

 

I used a zigzag stitch to keep the raw edge of the newly slenderized sleeve from unraveling.  Don’t worry.  Nobody will even see it, as it’s under my arm.       

Next, I needed to alter the length.  No minidress for me today!  I wanted this to fall just above my knees.       

 

Then I hemmed the bottom of the dress with my favorite rainbow thread.       

 

And that’s it!  I now had a very cute 50’s ish dress that I felt quite fetching in.       

 

 

This dress was perfect for an evening perusing Columbia, SC’s Main Street for their First Thursday (happens on the first Thursday of every month) art shows!  I was most excited to see the works of Lyon and Jennie Mae Hill at Frame of Mind.  I took pics of a few of my favorites.       

 

 

 

And since I was all about Columbia artists last night, I even accessorized with this nifty pin made by local artist, Clark Ellefson.  It’s a little piece of a road sign that he’s refashioned into my favorite pin.