ModCloth-Inspired New Year's Eve Dress Refashion

Happy New Year, friends! 🙂 Are you as excited about it as I am?

I’m ready. I’m pumped.

While last year was very successful in many ways, it was also an emotionally draining one that I’m happy to be closing and putting on the shelf.

I hope you’re as excited as I am!

I was struck by the awesomeness of the Bohemian Elegance dress from ModCloth.

Isn’t this dress just sigh-worthy? I love it! I love the brown hue and I love how the bottom is sheer.

I just knew I could make a ModCloth-Inspired New Year’s Eve Dress refashion out of this $1 thrift store find right here:

refashionista ModCloth-Inspired New Year's Eve Dress Refashion before — It takes imagination.

There are several differences between my thrifty find and my inspiration piece…not the least of which being the color.

The label in my new dress had been completely ripped out, but I should have known it was mostly polyester, which doesn’t take to dye very well.

But I was feeling adventurous!

So I threw my dress in my washing machine with a whole bottle of brown dye and two cups of salt as per the instructions on the bottle.

bottle of dark brown rit dye — Drown in in brown!

washing machine with dye bath — LOTS of dye!

I should have known there was no way this dress was going to go full-brown.

BUT my efforts weren’t for naught!

I at least managed to muddy up that pale blue a bit, and those flowers were quite transformed from their stark white. See?

comparison of dyed fabric and undyed fabric — See the difference?

Unfortunately, my dye job revealed a nasty secret. :/

I almost gave up on this dress then and there. Those newly-revealed stains were just nasty…and I wasn’t sure how to get rid of them.

Unfortunately, it was already New Year’s Eve and my friends were going to arrive to pick me up for the evening’s festivities shortly.

I had to make this work!

I snipped off the ties from the shoulders of my new dress…

shoulder bow ties — You are dumb, and you must go.

Then, I ripped off those sleeves.

ripping off sleeves with seam ripper — Pick. Pick. Pick.

This removed some of the grody pitness, but not all of it.

removec sleeves with pit stains — Those stains will haunt my dreams.

I had to do a bit more ripping to remove the lining from the outer stained layer.

removing lining with seam ripper — Pick. Pick. Pick. Again.

While I was picking, I went ahead and made the distance between the shoulders of the dress narrower.

measuring 1.5 inches on each side. — By 1.5 inches on each side.

But Ack! Those stains!

Suddenly, I knew exactly what to do!

The outer layer is blousier than the lining. It would need to be taken in if it was going to look anything like the original anyway. So….two birds! One stone!

I took it in.

sewing new side seam — Stitch those stains away!

I cut off those stained bits and wished them well on their journey to my trash can.

Almost done!

I closed up my new arm holes, leaving them detached from each other.

sewing new arm holes — First, the outer layer!

sewing arm hole lining — Then, the lining!

For my final trick, I cut off some of the lining so my new dress would mirror the opaque-to-sheer look of my inspiration piece.

dogs looking at dress — The hounds supervised.

Now that pitted-out thrifted dress dress is New Year’s Eve-Ready!

refashionista ModCloth-Inspired New Year's Eve Dress Refashion after — I know…It’s not really brown at all, but I still dig it!

I had a wonderful evening with my friends!

Jillian with friends in fancy bar — Hey Fellas! 🙂

refashionista new years eve close up — Many cocktails were had.

refashionista with friends on new years eve — Hot Instagram Action!

Jillian and Ryan — Just Chillin’ with one of Mumford’s sons.

I’m so very grateful for the amazing company I keep. They make the highest highs transcendent and the lowest lows possible to bear.

Cheers to a brand new year full of possibilities!