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.

Pepto dismal….hehehe! A superb result too. I love your work!
Reminds me of Rizzo from Grease! I love it!
I just noticed that the marionette you took a picture of is the one that I bought! It’s one of Jenny Mae Hill’s sock oddities in puppet form, and I’m really looking forward to putting something together this weekend to display it!
Why is Edith your “basement kitteh?” You don’t have a basement! (or is there something I don’t know) 😛
Suuuuper dorky LOL Cats reference. 😛