This dress couldn't decide if it was going for "nautical vintage pinup" or "clown costume."
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| I tried to find a telescope to complete the look... |
It gets better--the V-shaped bib is actually removable, just in case you didn't want to go for all-out worst-ever-stewardess uniform and instead were going for a more casual just-plain-awkward dress.
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| Yes, this improves matters greatly :S |
Of course the first thing I did was ditch the bib.
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| Buh-bye! |
Turns out the black bow was actually safety-pinned on. Was it an addition by a previous owner who didn't think this dress was awful enough as it was? Some mysteries shall never be solved.
The next step was to rip out the strange little rectangular shoulder pads, and remove the now-unnecessary (and rather chipped and faded) buttons meant to attach the bib because that thing was definitely
not going back on!
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| Gone! |
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| And gone! |
I decided that this dress was not salvageable as a dress--it was still just too much red and white stripeyness for me to stomach. So I chopped it off under the existing waistline.
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| Snip, snip, and a dress becomes a shirt! |
Then I cut out the lining, because I didn't like how it made this shirt bubble at the waistline rather than hang straight.
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| It wasn't too transparent--nobody will notice! |
Unfortunately, that was where I made a big uh-oh. You would think, given the number of times I do this, that I would learn to be extra careful not to snip anything that I don't want snipped, right? Wrong.
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| AAARRRGGGHHH! |
This was
supposed to be where this refashion ended--with a new nautical top. Now, though, I either had to decide to scrap this refashion wholesale, or find some way to fix it. I opted for repair. I couldn't just sew it back together--it would be way too obvious. I decided, in panic, to cut off the bottom elastic.
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| Where am I going with this? |
Then I cut a long slit up each side of the shirt.
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| Ok, I'm starting to develop a plan. |
Finally, I tied the ends of each slit together with a little knot.
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| Oh-kaaaayy... |
To be honest, I wasn't really sure whether any of this would work. I was just trying to bring this refashion back from the brink of disaster. You'll notice I didn't finish any of my raw edges--I wasn't hopeful, at this point.
But...
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| It's a miracle! |
Somehow all of that cutting and hacking and tying and hoping turned out a presentable top! Hindsight, being what it is, I have since realized that I could have saved myself a lot of grief simply by sewing up the accidental snippage and then
covering it with something--probably with the black bow from the bib. It would have added an interesting feature to this stripey top, and resulted in a much more finished product--without the raw edges that are tucked under the edge of the top in this photo.
But I think this refashion still shows that even when you make refashioning mistakes, there are ways to recover! I'm glad I didn't give up on this one!
