DIYdeas: a too-big-up-top vintage dress of dowdiness

In today's episode, we go from this:


dowdy.

to this:

amazing!

This darling dress was an etsy find, but ended up being way too big everywhere except the skirt. It was made of a poly chiffon, so it was super difficult to work with - I swear it would fray if I even looked at it wrong... and I didn't really feel like I had the skill to alter this totally irreplaceable vintage dress. So it sat in my closet, neglected, for oh... 8 months?

A few weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and decided to get going on it. I used a seam ripper to take off the sleeves (and gigantic shoulder pads). Then, I took in the sides of the top (and learned how to do french seams in the process) and used white seam binding tape to finish the arm holes.


(poly chiffon = lots and lots of pins)

In reality, it took me about 6 hours of ripping/pinning/sewing/ripping out my stitches/sewing again to finish it, which was longer than I thought it would take! But I am super pleased with the results.



Outfit details:
Dress: etsy, remixed by moi
red peep toes: target size 11
necklace: gift from husband
belt: target 2xl, 2009
purse: garage sale, $3




ETA: better pics!






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