Banana Cream Pie Dress

Time to Complete: 1 hour
Sewing Machine Required? Yes
Difficulty: Difficult

Let's take a look at today's contender, shall we?

I look like a 19th century school marm.

This dress has been sitting in my refashion closet for nearly a year, waiting for me to find just the right mood in which to tackle it. Today was the day. It doesn't look very impressive in this picture, but let's look a little closer at that collar detailing.

Pretty!

The scrollwork on that lace netting won my heart when I encountered this piece, and it is still my favourite part of the dress. To make it really shine, I knew I needed to downplay the rest of this banana-hued beast.

There followed a flurry of chopping.

Bye-bye, monster shoulder pads!

It's bigger than my face!

So long, useless side-tie thingies!

Handy hook-and-eye closure, you can stay.

With those unnecessary bits removed, it was time to make a big decision: how much of the skirt to cut off? I decided to chop around the fifth button down from the waist.

I've made a few crooked hems recently, and I decided it was time to tidy up my act and do something properly, for once, rather than my usual cut-and-pray method. I laid the dress out on the floor and measured down from the waist, marking around the skirt with a charcoal pencil.

Use charcoal for pale fabrics and a bar of hand soap for dark fabrics!

Then I unbuttoned the skirt and cut along my charcoal line.

Chomp!

The next step was to fold, pin, and iron my new hem. I took my time to avoid wrinkles and keep the line even.

Lots o' pins!

Then I stitched down my new hem. 

I wasn't finished yet, though. The length of the skirt was fixed, and the shoulder pads were gone, but the sleeves of this dress were still massive and made me look very top-heavy. I needed to take them in. 

Out with the pencil!

I marked the line I wanted to sew (a rough guess based on putting the dress on and pinching in the fabric under the armpits) on both sides. Then I stitched it down. I tried it on to make sure the fit was good, then cut away the excess material with my pinking shears.

Toothy cuts!

Finally, this dress was complete! 

Cute!

Not to brag, but that hemline is dead even. It really makes a difference when I take the time to get it right! I wore this dessert-inspired dress with some navy tights, my favourite braided belt, and a pendant necklace. What do you think?

Criticisms: The skirt ended up being a touch shorter than I like. I was hoping for something I could wear to work, and this is shorter than I'd be comfortable with. I did look through my scrap bin for something I could use to extend the length of the skirt, perhaps in a coordinating colour, but I didn't have anything I liked. Looks like this is destined to be a date nights and days out dress!