So one of the many projects that I completed on coming back from the Honey moon was taking this Bridesmaid dress I wore for my Cousins wedding almost a year ago and re-vamping it into something I would wear on a more consistent basis. Or at least one more time.
This was the wedding and the dress in question. It was a long purple semi mermaid dress. It's just not a dress I would ever choose to wear myself. Firstly I am not a purple girl and second long and mermaid just look terrible on my short frame. People said it looked fine but if you aren't comfortable in the dress for yourself no matter how it looks you just won't be your best. My solution was to make it a short dress.
Here she is laid out on the table for dissection. My idea was to cut her off and make gored godet insets to give fullness like a 1950's dress.
After the exterior was cut to length I turned her inside out and cut the lining 2" shorter and hemmed it. I didn't bother trying to do anything to the lining to increase the size because there is no point, it is a lining no one will see it. The point of the lining is to keep the unsightly seams from showing on the inside and to make it easier to put the dress on and off without snagging on any seams.
Me and my unenthusiastic trying on of the dress several times in the mirror to figure out where I wanted to cut it. Also note the arthritic thumb brace I've been rocking due to my Knitting injury, yes that's right knitting injury.
This is the shortened dress before I attempted to put fullness in.
It isn't bad just the way it is.
This was the the dress with the bottom portion of the skirt that I had cut off just attached to the waist. This also isn't bad but then I tried to do something super complicated by layering the two skirts on top of each other to make the larger fuller one removable. It would of worked except that I was too tired when I did this and frustrated that my head couldn't wrap around some menial problems.
In the end I settled for just the short version of the dress with no volume. It looks more modern this way and I can more easily pass this off to a friend for further mileage out of a once unloved bridesmaid dress.
A close up of the folded top stitch hem. Pressing hems is as key as pressing seams for a more finished look.
As for the remainder of the fabric I got some elastic and made myself a skirt so there was almost zero waste from the project. My husband said "damn that's crafty a two for one" You might see this simply sophisticated skirt at
Craftin Outlaws for sale if you are lucky!
I did wear my new style dress out to my friend's wedding
Eliza and Steve
But of course the person taking the photos is very rarely in the photos themselves. Hopefully someone else took a picture of me so that I can share it with you. Because the only photos I have make me look naked (thanks strapless dress in headshots!)
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