Happy New year everyone!!
Even though it was last month’s project and I have actually already worn and washed the dress, I thought this post would be in theme with the end of year festivities…and I’m extremely proud of it too!
So at the end of November I had a fancy charity dinner to attend…no not as a guest obviously (otherwise I wouldn’t be upcycling dresses…or maybe I would but not 2 euro vintage ones 🤔).
I didn’t quite know if to go out and buy some random cheap dress or make it from scratch (but that implied buying the material and I had not much time on my hands…how I miss the material shops under my house in Paris!). Then I remembered I had kept this vintage thing that I used to be a vampire at Halloween 4 years ago and now doesn’t fit in anymore.
Long story short, I decided to cut the dress at the knee and use the spare material to insert panels on the side. It was actually surprisingly easy to do thanks to my marvelous Betty.
The main thing I liked about this dress is the halter neck collar that I wanted to keep. So I unstiched from under the arms all the way to the bottom. You get a kind of long triangular gap. From the cuttings from the knee down i managed to make four strips that I sewed together two by two. I then placed the rectangular stripes in the triangular gaps! Gosh it sounds more complicated than it is. Just check the picture below and you will get the gist.
I then proceed to sew the raw edges together. And overlocked the raw edges (with a normal sewing machine, not a serger…maybe next year I’ll invest in one of those). At that point before cutting anything I made sure it was the right fit and THEN I cut the edges (learnt from mistakes…ahem experience!)
And voilà, in the end I didn’t put the macramé lace on the seams, didn’t have the time to attach it. So it will probably end up on another project!
Crafty Poulette 