Awesome Dress Refashion

Last year, I bought some dresses to refashion, I showed the black flowery one recently.  I decided after that I needed a quick project.  This dress, I had already detached the skirt from the bodice to see how much fabric I had to work with.  Quite a bit, though there was a curve to the front piece (it was a faux wrap skirt, in a plus size).  I was concerned about the bodice, since it seemed to be designed for a woman with a large booty...the back was longer than the front, the exact opposite of what I need!  The bust and shoulder width fit well, so I just had to take the shoulders in a touch, and the sides quite a bit, and then evened out the bottom of the bodice. 

 

                                         

 

I really didn't want another empire waist dress though--I made/bought quite a few last summer, and I'm hoping that my weight loss meant that I could start having a waist in my clothes again.  But I had to do something to make a midriff! 

 

Since the dress was long, I figured I'd cut a band and shir it.  After getting the first piece done, I realized that it had shrunk in width and was now about 1/2 the width I needed.  Once shirred, it wouldn't stretch out fully to the original width.  I ended up cutting three more same size pieces (due to the shape of the pieces I had left) and shirring them individually, though I wish I had seamed them and shirred it all at once. 

 

I sewed the leftover skirt pieces together to make a fuller skirt, and there is a little bit of curvature to the hem, but it's okay.

 

Then I used the serger to seam the skirt to the midriff, and the midriff to the bodice.





 

 

I had a bit of issue with the seam in the center of the front shirring; I tried to line it up really carefully, but one line of shirring didn't quite pull right to the seam.  Also, the join of the skirt to the midriff was a bit uneven.  I hope the busy print hides it.

 I LOVE this dress.  It's a crinkle fabric, very lightweight (100% rayon) and cool.  No back sweat in the shirred section.  The skirt is full, but drapes so nicely from the midriff, and it "pouffs" in the wind or when walking down the stairs, but I don't think there's any risk of blow up, LOL.  I'll have to compare the midriff size to the dress I showed yesterday.  I like that this dress has more coverage than many of my other summer dresses, but is not hot at all.  I feel feminine and pretty, even if it's not a "fashion" dress.

Yesterday I was wearing that black flowered dress I recently refashioned.  I'm really not happy with the sleeves.  Dowdy.  I could make it sleeveless (maybe, not sure), or I could raise the top of the armhole (the shoulders are clearly too wide), and make a center seam/dart into the sleeves to get rid of the fullness.  Hard to decide.  I really need dresses with sleeves but I don't know if I want to do the work...but I don't think it's stylish enough with those sleeves to thrift it the way it is.  I love how it's flowy and shows some leg when I walk, but the sleeves...ugh.