Wednesday, June 12, 2013

From Pioneer Village to Vintage Chic


Back to some refashioning today! I've been slowly going through my closets for the last while, taking some things to the local consignment shop, donating others, and putting some into a "possibly rework" pile. This is one of the latter. It's really long and a bit shapeless, and has one of those self-ties in the back. Another refugee from the days when I wore dresses to the ankle and hair to the waist.

So I've had this dress for a long time, and almost didn't keep it, as I thought the pattern was too busy. But I gave it a shot, just to see what would happen.




I took 9 inches off the bottom and about 3 inches off the sleeves to start.





Then I decided to change the collar. It was a notched collar that didn't lay quite right, and was also pretty shapeless. But instead of taking the whole collar off, I folded under the bottom section and stitched it down close to the edge, making a v-neck with only the top collar left showing. I thought it had a bit of a vintage vibe. I also stitched down the inner edges of that notched bit to the interior facing so that it would lay flay on both sides, which had the added benefit of really reinforcing that sharp v-line.

bottom half of notched collar folded in
Close-up! folded, ironed, stitched, and fastened
to facing to keep it flat.

As the last step, I fully intended to remove that blasted self-tie that always ends up in a floppy bow right above your butt, and take in the waist a bit. But for some reason I decided to pull the tie around to the front and knot it, and I liked the look. It automatically gave a bit of a dart at the side, and resulted in a blouson effect that I felt comfortable with.

Somehow I feel that I should be wearing a cute little forties style hat with this one. I had to make do with my retro espadrille heels for any vintage appeal. I was surprised by how much I liked this one -- wore it today and it was nice to get a second life out of it!


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