When my friends and I decided to plan a surprise birthday party for two of our favorite gentlemen who have reached a certain *ahem* landmark age, we went with a (playful) funeral theme.
This meant I needed something black, but not too severe for this fun fete!
Sadly, the only thing I had on my Refashion rack was this vaguely nun-ish number:
As I wash everything before I work with it, I was sad to see that cute collar got some very noticeable black color bleeding on it. :/
At least I had those lovely pearly buttons!
To get started, I removed a shoulder pad.
Yep. Just one. Apparently the previous owner for this frock had one muscle-y shoulder and one weak one. 😉
See those lame side tie thingies in the first pic? Yeah…those went buh-bye as well.
Next, I carefully snipped off that discolored collar.
Normally I would use a seam ripper to do this, but I knew I wanted to deepen the neckline for this refashion, so cutting off a little extra fabric wouldn’t hurt anything.
Next, I grabbed my seam ripper and got to work on those sleeves.
I watched the worst TV show of all time while I picked them off.
All this snipping and ripping left me with a bunch of raw edges to pin down, and that’s just what I did!
I stitched my new neck and arm holes down.
This dress was still too blousey for me, so I got to reshaping/tailoring!
I trimmed off the excess fabric, then did one more lil chop!
I stitched a quick hem, then sewed those two side tie thingies together to make a mini-sash!
Just like that, I was ready to run out the door to a wonderful party for two wonderful fellas! 🙂
Cheers!
