This ugly collared dress has been passed over many times when I’ve flicked through my refashion stash for a day’s upcycle.
There’s little to love about this dated $1 thrift store dress. I hate the collar, the pads, those sleeve cuffs, the buttons, and that fake camisole under layer.
Plus, when I washed it, the dye bled onto the white parts, leaving them unpleasantly splotchy (The label said “Dry Clean Only”, but do I pay attention to labels? No. No I do not).
I know…I just did a navy blue collared dress refashion, but I promise this one is totally different! I’m not here to disappoint you guys!
Let’s get this Refashion (and the party) started!
Step 1: The Removal of ALL THE THINGS
As I said above, I hate just about every single detail on this dress.
So, I got to ripping!
That collar was the first to go.
Say farewell to those mondo huge pads!
As sports are cancelled right now, I have no need for these linebacker-worthy shoulder pads.
Now for those buttons!
I used my seam ripper to remove most of them, but then noticed the bottom three were actually pinned on!
That fake under layer
Removing that fake camisole thing was a breeze, as it was simply buttoned in.
However, as I saw it laying there, I realized there was a part of it that I actually liked.
That lace detail is quite lovely when extracted from its weird camisole prison, isn’t it?
Whew! That was a lot of removing, wasn’t it?
So. Many. Raw. Edges.
All of that unpicking left the top of my thrifted dress looking like a bit of a mess. :/
Time to get pinning!
I carefully pinned everything back together, with the addition of one awesome little detail.
I decided I just couldn’t let that little bit of lace go! I added it to the shoulder as I thought it would be an interesting visual element.
I stitched my new neckline down.
Now that my neckline was de-collared, it was time to handle that front placket!
I now had to figure out how I wanted to get in and out of my new dress.
I decided I didn’t really want this to be a button-up dress anymore. I knew from prior experimentation that I could get in and out of the dress as long as the top button was undone, ergo I could just stitch the dress up to that point.
However, the tiny holes from where the buttons used to be were really distracting.
I decided to camouflage those tiny holes with a bit of decorative stitching.
I chose this stitch on my machine.
Here’s how it turned out!
Next, I stitched the front placket down except for the top buttonhole.
First, I pinned the placket down and chopped a bit off the bottom (this will become a sash later)
Then, I stitched the placket down!
Let’s get some closure…a new top closure that is!
I pulled these two buttons from my stash:
Since I reversed the original overlap, my top button needed to button from the inside.
So, I stitched the small brown button on the inside, and the pretty navy one on the outside (to cover the stitching and because I thought it looked cool).
The Final Touches!
We’re coming into the final stretch!
I pinned the bottom raw edge of my dress under.
Then I stitched down a new hem!
Refash a sash!
I took that bottom scrap and pinned the raw edge under once.
Then, I stitched along the raw edge with a zigzag to keep it from fraying. I know, I’m wildly inconsistent in how I make my sashes. But it’s fun to experiment!
After allllll of that, my new dress was done!
I think my refashion turned out looking quite high-end and classy! Luckily, I had a navy blue slip I was able layer underneath my new creation.
You can see how instead of cutting off the original sleeve cuffs of this dress I instead opted for rolling them up. Out of sight, out of mind!
This was definitely a very fiddly Refashion project (It took me about three hours in total), but I think it was well worth it!
Cheers!
