Sometimes it’s fun to make a vintage dress from one era look like a vintage dress from a completely different era!
Take this dress from the 1980s:
It’s not very exciting, is it? I saw several details I really liked, such as that lace front panel and the pleating on the front bodice. But it was just too blah for a fun day of celebrating with friends! :/
Don’t fear! I knew exactly what I needed to do to transform this dress from 80’s meh to 60’s mod!
First, I trimmed off the sleeves.
Then, I plopped my new dress onto my form and got pinning!
A quick stitch session ensued!
I still needed to close up those arm holes. First, I added a few triangular notches to make them fold under nicely.
Of course, I had to pin & stitch them down!
I chopped off a bit from the bottom of my dress, going for a 1960’s mod length!
Even though this tight-knit polyester fabric wasn’t going to fray, I still give that raw a nice new hem. 🙂
It was so close to what I wanted, but my new dress desperately needed a bit more ooomph! I had a nifty idea for how to make the top of the dress more interesting. I began ripping off part of that lace panel, like so:
Then, I pinned & stitched it all back down.
I cut a small section from the original hem of the dress and stitched it right above the lacey section.
I tossed on some retro shades, a thick belt, some fab wedges, and a funky thrifted scarf, and was ready to go!
My pals and I had a blast wandering around Main Street for the SC Pride Festival!
I had a brief, but terrifying encounter with a giant purple spider!
Thankfully, Dan was able to protect me.
We even got to witness the musical stylings of the 80’s legend, Berlin!
Cheers!
