From maxi dress to fun summer top

I popped into a consignment shop that was new to me and discovered this dress for more than I would normally spend (about $21) but I figured I'd get a cute summer top and a skirt for it. And I could probably do something with the mammoth sleeves as well.

 The first thing I did was get rid of the sleeves, but kept the round yellow neck-line. I love round necklines. (I take terrible photos, sorry.)

 Then I stitched all around to make sure there were no raw edges from cutting.

 Next, I pinned the sides and sewed up to make it fit me better and close up the arm hole a bit. No one wants side boob.

 I could have been more careful with the next part -- where I chopped off the bottom half of the dress. In this picture, I've already cut out the bottom yellow hem, which I needed to finish off the bottom hem of my new shirt. I plan to use this piece to make a simple summer skirt.

So, I took the bottom piece and sewed it to the top. You need to put both pieces right sides together and sew it. I didn't get pics, sorry about that. But here it is inside out after I sewed it.

And here is the finished product. I actually work this to work yesterday with some black ankle-length pants and did get some compliments, so I'd say it was a success.

BEFORE AND AFTER

When a Refashion Fails

Not every refashion is a win. The bummer of it is, sometimes you don't even realize until the very end, after you've spent nearly 3 hours in your un-air-conditioned sewing room where it's 87 degrees and all along you think you've got a winner on your dress form. Here's the story:

At a glance, you might think this was a win...it's not.

I bought this plan blue dress several months ago and set it aside after taking a few inches off the bottom. It has a matching belt, but I'm not sure where I put it.

Meh. I dig the neckline though.

Because it's so hot, I figured those sleeves had to go. I also wanted to do something interesting with the back, maybe a conservative racer-back, just slightly cut-in, so I chopped away and then turned the dress inside out on my dress form. That's when I saw this:

What's this I see around the neckline? Something I can use as a round collar, I think.

I dig that look of dress or tops with a round collar. So I decided that's what I'd do with this piece of materials. I started to take it off using a seam ripper but that was taking too long so I just yanked it off.

Don't worry, this will be on the inside.

Next, I cleaned up those frayed edged by rehemming all along my new collar. Then, I pinned it on the wrong side of the dress, around the neck line. That way, when flipped to the correct side, those seams would be invisible. (See...even with a fail, I learn or practice a new trick.)

Then, I just sewed that in place and turned the dress right-side out and back on the dress form. My technique of ripping left some frayed edges visible, so I pinned the collar in such a way so that my top-stitching would hide that.

Unsightly frayed edges.

Top-stitched and back on the form.

Nearly finished...or so I thought.

Now, when I see it in pictures, it's totally obvious that the arm holes are too big. And the dress needs to be taken in on the sides. Why I didn't see this from the get-go, I'm not sure. See, when I cut off the sleeves I was a bit too ambitious. This left the sides of the dress gaping. You can see that in the picture above. I didn't see, and I thought, "This dress is adorable!" So I put it on. There are no pictures of this because I was a sweaty mess.  But I pinned where the dress needed to be taken in and tried to tighten up the sleeve hole.

ALSO, while the neckline looks cute on the dress form, it didn't work in reality. The "straps" were too wide. The collar should extend past the sleeve part. So, back to the machine, I narrowed the sleeve area so the collar went past the edge.

Narrower arms so the collar extends past.

The arm holes are still such that I think I run the risk of -- side-boob!! EWWWW.

No one wants to see side-boob. Well, I don't.

I also don't like the way it hangs on me. So that's that. I didn't throw it out though. I'm not 100% giving up on this, but I don't think it will serve it's final days as a dress. Maybe a casual top. We'll see.