Late summer dress refashion!
So here's the story of this dress. Like a year and a half ago, I picked up this rather hideous cotton print... jumper, I guess, from Goodwill Outlet because it looked like something I could turn into something else. I guess I was in the mood for a challenge at the time.
It was homemade to begin with, out of a not-very-suitable lightweight quilting fabric. I didn't know how I could possibly make it cute, so I held onto it for quite a while.
Then earlier this spring or summer I saw this page in People Style Watch.
I thought to myself, hmmm, that dress looks familiar--or could look familiar.
I pulled out one of my fave patterns, Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity 2497, and used the bodice pattern but made the skirt out of whatever I could (I made the ruffle first, from the existing bottom of the dress), and cut out a looong waistband. I didn't want to mess with a zipper so I gave it an elastic waist, and it pulls over the head. Like I say, a variation...
It was a bit of a pinch to cut everything out of the existing dress, but it worked! The waistband is lined with a muslin, but besides that and the elastic, the dress is totally recycled! And I even captured the look of Lauren Conrad's.
It's a very simple dress, even Lauren's version. Simple soft v-neck gathered into the waist.
Definitely cutest with a belt!
I feel so powerful when I can make over a dress completely and it works. Wahoooo!!!