poppy dress

I bought a long skirt in a  thrift store in Portland 3 years ago, intending to do something with it because I liked the fabric so much...and yep, three years later I finally did. I've spent the past week off and on sewing this; I gave myself some frustrating challenges because I cut some pieces too short and had to keep adding material here and there to give more length in places.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's really comfortable, too. I feel like it took much longer to sew than it should have, but not having a real pattern to work with to make the top made it challenging. I had to take out hems a lot and redo things as I went.

"dress" with a surprise

I have really been itching to sew something, but I don't have any usable sewing fabric at the moment. I went through my items that need to be redesigned and picked out this hideous old urban outfitters pilgrim dress. (see the picture below*).

I kept it as a dress, cut off the sleeves and cut a deep V in the front and back, but after sewing all the hems, I wasn't into it. So I hacked off the top, added an elastic waist and made a skirt.

The secret is...I didn't make the top, it's actually a

I used to do that when I was younger and I forgot about it. But I LOVE sweetheart strapless tops (and sweetheart strapless dresses.) This is the lazy way out. You have to tie the back very tight though and be careful that something doesn't happen (or your top falls off!).

Here's how to do it:

*P.S. Here is the hideous pilgrim dress. Yes, YES I actually wore it before. Dear god. I wore this? Don't judge me too hard, I was a graduate student at the time. (That cuts me some slack, right?). I got it on clearance for $10 at UO. No wonder it was on clearance.

vest

I've had this thrifted Banana Republic vest for almost two years. I kept thinking of re-thrifting it because I couldn't think of how to modify it and make it wearable.

So I turned it inside out, cut out some of the middle, sewed it and added buttons. I like it.

shirt.

I can't lie here, this wasn't my original idea. But, I am really happy with my results.

Before:



AFTER:

modified dress.

I made this dress a month ago from an old thrift store find.

BEFORE (below): hideous.






AFTER:
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