Welcome! Does 2020 need a new blog? Maybe not, but here it is! Since we’re going through a FREAKING GLOBAL PANDEMIC, and we’re quarantined from each other, I thought this would be a fun way to connect with other DIY enthusiasts! We’re gonna start with this blah dress…
Just. Wow.
I bought this dress from the students in the adult program at my school. They have an internship where they work in the on-campus (lucky me!) boutique consignment shop, tagging, hanging, displaying, and selling the clothes that are donated. This gal was 8 bucks. There’s just one problem:
Maybe more than one problem…
Clearly I didn’t try this on before I bought it, but at $8, I knew I could do something with it. Aside from being dismally beige, in a shade that only accentuates my deathly pallor, and the fact that it’s too small… where was I? Oh yeah, I could do SOMETHING with this gem. I mean, look at it up close.
She’s handmade!!!
This dress was very well made. I am a trained seamstress and couturier (yes, I have a degree in this!) and game recognize game. Whoever worked on this dress, did it with love and talent. How it ended up in my hands is a stroke of luck I don’t want to take for granted.
You’ll probably see in the earlier picture that I can zip it up mostly, but I can not button the placket, even if I wanted to.
Impossible buttons!!!
Luckily, I noticed that someone had taken this dress in a bit! I’ve had this dress for months and never noticed that it had some sneakily hidden darts, which I undid with my embroidery scissors.
Hooray for breathing room!
I use embroidery scissors instead of a seam ripper, because a seam ripper pulls on the thread, which puts unnecessary stress on the fabric, and can mess with the shape of the garment, especially if you’re working with a loose weave. Plus, my shaky hands would probably puncture the garment with a seam ripper anyway, lol.
I started refashioning this dress by addressing it’s lack of color. Since this dress is polyester, and polyester doesn’t take dye well, it would forever be beige. Polyester is made from plastic, which is dyed in it’s melted liquid form, before being extruded through essentially a big a** pasta maker. If you don’t dye it while it’s molten, the best you could do is buy a synthetic dye that will basically stain the outside of the threads, but never penetrate it (see, that degree comes in handy sometimes, haha). Er go, I decided to bust out my embroidery floss!
Listening to the Morbid Podcast because I ❤ Ash & Alaina!
What commenced was 3 straight days of embroidery, where I sewed, scrapped, and resewed a bunch of different shapes in hope that they resembled flowers. I would say if you’re going to do this, just don’t overthink it. Use whatever colors you want, even if you don’t think they’ll match. I believe that anything you like won’t clash with anything else you like, because YOU like it. Makes sense, right?
Highlighting that awesome lemniscate
Ta-da!
So that takes care of the color for now. Sadly, it was still a bit too small, so I decided to give it a scoop back!
Just look at my veiny hand!
I laid the dress so the shoulders were touching, lined up the button placket, and just eyeballed a scoop! Even though this fabric was a knit polyester that wasn’t going to unravel, I still wanted a clean seam, so she took a trip under the serger.
Trying to do it justice!
The bottom has to go too, as this length is too dowdy for my frame. I’m 5’8″, and I don’t want the length to shorten me.
The sleeves were pretty, but overwhelming for me, so they didn’t make the cut 
Or did they?
So what do you think? It kind of has a Grecian vibe, and a little 70’s boho to me 🙂
All dressed up and no where to go
I still can’t do up the buttons alone, but since we’re in a pandemic, I guess a trip to my yard with a few undone buttons is the best we could ask for. Once we’re all together again, I’ll have someone do me up properly. Until then, I have on a tank top underneath, to preserve my delicate modesty (just kidding, smash the patriarchy).
I got one button done by myself
I styled them with some embroidered boots I found at Goodwill a year ago, FOR EIGHT DOLLHAIRS!!!
That’s 8 bucks, folks
So that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope it inspires you to refashion, refurbish, or reimagine the things you own to make them more “you.” I mean, we’ve got the time lol #quarantine2020
I need a better camera
Let me know what you’ve been up to! Byeeeee!!!
Moonflower DIY 
