Mary's Thrifty Chic

Upcycling thrift shop clothing/sewing

floral

Summer Floral Dress

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Trying to find a dress last year in the height of the Covid was a nightmare. I was tasked with finding a colorful summer dress for a bridal shower. You would think I was searching for “The Holy Grail!” I guess no one had much of a need for dresses during the lockdowns. I ran out of time to find something more suitable so I had to settle for this floral wrap dress ordered online. It fit but was very difficult and uncomfortable to wear because the wrap feature kept trying to give me an Angelina Jolie moment by exposing my entire leg. This kept me busy readjusting for the entire time I wore it.

Before

Loved the floral pattern but hated the wrap!

After

Now I can wear this dress and relax!

Tutorial

I removed the skirt and changed the top to an empire waist by adding a panel in the center. I used the blue straps to do this.
I put three pleats underneath each side of the bust to create the front bodice. Then I trace basted the new bustline where I would reattach the skirt.
Here is a closer look at the finished bodice. What I did sounds quite complicated, but since I have a dress form it was quite easy to do. I did have to do 2 or 3 fittings to make the skirt sit “Just right.”

I was so tempted to throw it away but I am glad I did not. Another save in the books! How about you? Do you have anything you are holding onto that could be transformed? Let me know your experience or if you have any questions about this project. More to come soon!

Talk to me!

Happy Refashioning

Mary, Thrifty Chic

1pattern Many Looks-Part 2 of ?

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Hi Everyone!
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Today we have part 2 of one pattern many looks. I found this awful chiffon dress at the thrift shop for $7.99. It was a size 3x so I had plenty of fabric to work with. It was so big that I had to take the before picture by taking the top first…
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…and then the bottom.
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Otherwise you can’t see all of the details which I lovingly have dubbed, “Olive Oyle on Sterioids.”

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Seriously, can’t you see Popeye’s girlfriend wearing this with a little pillbox hat that has a flower sticking out of it? Ha! Ha! Nevertheless, I did fall in love with the good parts of this dress, like the border print, (go figure) and all of the pleating on the upper bodice and sleeves.

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Here is how is all turned out in the end using the exact same pattern as I started with in part 1 of this series.
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Now for the tutorial on how it all happened:
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1) Cut out the front and back. I did this by lining up the pattern on the border print at the bottom and the pleats across the yoke. I absolutely did not use any of the Olive Oyl details. LOL! Notice in the picture how I lined up the center lines on the flat part of the fabric while I let the pleated part of the yoke lie naturally.
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2) After sewing the side seams and shoulder seams, I took the original sleeves (already picked from the original) and fit them in the new armhole. I ended up slimming down the original sleeves about 2 inches. In this picture the sleeves are in and the neck is turned and edgestitched. You can also see the pleating in the yoke and sleeves.
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Here it is up close. I think it has a totally different look from the first blouse just by virtue of the print and the pleating. I feel really pretty wearing it. What do you think? I feel part 2 took it up a notch but I can’t wait to show you part 3 and 4 already in the works! Let me know what you think and stay tuned…
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‘Til Later…
Love
Mary