I got my hands on a good one today friends!! Totally early 90s…floral print, frillsters collar, those glorious sashes to tie in the back. Loved it!
Day 242 - Before
You know what else I loved? The entire top of the dress that was without any of the five buttons that should have been on it still!
Buttonless Joe!
We’ll be taking care of the button ish in a few.
First, we’re gonna get rid of that collar!! I took my seam ripper and started de-threading
Clipping that collar!
A closer up shot shows the lovely stain detail on the collar that I didn’t even notice until now. Classy!!
Ring around the collar no more!
Now it’s button time! I grabbed five of the same octagon buttons with a little brown stone in the center that I had in my Ziploc freezer bag full of button goodness! I pinned each button in place of where I was going to hand sew.
I found buttons!!!
Little by little I got each of the five buttons secured! Woo hoo – didn’t want to be Flash Gordon today 🙂 (Terrible, terrible pun…apologies!)
Hand Stitcharoo!!
It looks like they came with the dress!
I gots me some buttons!!
Ooh, and with this dress came some pads that I snipped out next.
Shouldah pads!
Before I get to stitching on the sewing machine, the sleeves had to get removed. We’re going sleeveless, baby!
Later sleeves!
Ooh, and look at that hole on the waist – we’re tackling that as well as folding down a little of the neckline to make a slight V. Sewing machine, here I come!!
Holy Moly!!
After the sewing, I tied the sashes together and cinched the straps with some safety pins because after I tried it on, I wasn’t completely thrilled and wanted to give it a little more flavor. Wanna see the outcome??
Day 242 - After
Totally, utterly heart this dress!! I took the sashes and tied them into the back and my summer dress was cookin!! Literally I got to cooking in my kitch.
ECU! (Extreme Close Up!!)
What I loved is that my dress has a similar look to this lovely one I found on Modcloth.
Modcloth's Gorge Version!!
Cooking club is tomorrow night, so I had to cut some onions, mince some garlic and clean some house! Mediterranean theme here I come!
Cooking Club Prep!!
I’m already pretending I’m in Greece.
My "Marisa on her vacation" look!
I will be dreaming of feta and hummus tonight in anticipation!
New Dress A Day 
I am learning sooooooooo much with you that I cannot say, such an inspiration!!!!
I love what you did with the neckline – it looks fab!!! 🙂
Great reconstruction job on the dress, it looks completely different!
this is by far my favourite dress so far! it’s bayooootiful!
This has to be one of my absolute faves of yours! It turned out SO cute. Well done, you!
So cute and retro – especially with those sunnies on 🙂
I think it might be one of my favorite dress so far!
I adore the v-neck effect and the strap as well, just lovely!
Love this dress. Actually I love it more than the Modcloth one. Amazing job.
Wonderful! I love it xx
Cute!
Wow, so pretty!
What’s Cooking Club, pray tell? Sounds great to me. I love clubs – already got me a Craft Club, Film Club and Lunch Club (three of us in the office take it in turns to make lunch). I wanna get me a Cooking Club!
I like your version a bit more than the one from modcloth. Your dress has more of a ’50s look to it.
I love the way this one turned out! I am super impressed!
I love the sweetheart neckline and the dress as a whole!!
One of my new faves!
OMG! So stinkin cute! I love this dress!!! Great refashion!
Adorable
Gorgeous lady! Gorgeous!
Great makeover! You’re such an inspiration. And I’m glad I’m not the only one with the ziploc full of random buttons!
That is fabulous!!! I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, you really worked your magic on that one, didn’t you. 🙂 Beautiful.
What I was wondering about, though: do you generally wash your beauties beforehand or after you’ve finished creating them?
I just found your blog today, and my goodness am I happy I did. What a treat to see your vision; especially your repurposing. Lovely!
CUTE!
This is so my favorite of your refashions so far – love that neckline!!!
I SO love this dress. The neckline is absolutely gorgeous.
The dress is wonderful.
Greetings from Brazil.
Kick ass job on the top part! Those heinous lacy flap collars… God, they were EVERYWHERE.
Girl, you are AWESOMEEEEEE!
One of my favorites so far–I love how the neckline came out! And such a drastic difference between the before and after. Well played!
amazing! i love it. keep it coming~
This one is just fab!
holy crap that was an amazing transformation!
This is so cute! I love your revamped clothing.
I have one almost identical and have wondered how to “fix” it! Not quite sure how you changed the neck though, it appears to be more than just a little fold.
You are an inspiration!
it’s gorgeous! you’re fit for Cannes!!!!!
The before picture had me flashing back to high school. I’m sure I had something similar that I wore to a school dance one time. Love the updated version!
Beauty! Those shoulder pads reminded me, though — I think we need an update on the jars of shoulder pad madness!!
What a transformation! This is one of my favorites so far!!
Love this blog! Takes me back to high school when my best friend and I would enter oven like warehouses in south Texas to go through piles of clothing. They sold clothing by the pound. Weekdays was a quarter a pound, weekends, ten cents! Then we’d take them home, wash, re-make and wear!
looove, i love me a sweetheart neckline.
You went from a Big Love version to Femme Fatale!
One of my top 5 faves..you rock!
This is definitely one of my favorite transformations! You turned it from something that was absolutely unwearable to a gorgeous and classy dress, and it looks great on you! Also, I really love your facial expressions in your “before” photos…that is probably a weird/creepy thing to say, but they just make me laugh! 🙂
LOVED this reconstruction! can’t go wrong with a sweetheart neckline..! great job!!
Girl you are awesome! I wish I could do this but I do not have the time nor the patience. I will just have to keep following your blog to see if you keep giving awesome tips and showing off awesome dresses. Keep up the good work I admire you.
WOW! I am absolutely in love. I am amazed by your advanced alteration skills! You’ve acquired so many fans too:)
This is one of the biggest transformations I’ve seen on your blog. It’s very fascinating that you saw that in those old rags. 🙂
Oh, my! This is a winner and a new favorite of mine! It is so amazingly flattering of your adorable figure.
new here and love your blog, both in concept and execution.
I love what you did to this dress– I see/remember so many of these and am always sad to see such a good floral wasted on prairie-grandma-shoulderpad-blah. Yet you made it a swingy little 50s inspired comfy dress. wish I had minions like you at my disposal
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One of my favorites, you really turned it into something pretty 🙂 youre amazing!
oddly enough, my mom used to remove the buttons from things before she gave them away… i’m not sure if she needed the buttons for other projects, or if she suspected those buttons might be valuable someday??? i never know with my mom.
I love this!
This looks great! Another favorite. :o)
I wore a dress like that to my 8th grade graduation – heck yeah early 90’s floral! Loved what you did with it 🙂
The beginning dress reminded me of this! keep up the inspiring work! http://www.etsy.com/listing/52789384/vintage-red-floral-mini-dress-designer?ref=cat3_gallery_13
Love love love that dress! That’s a big hole in my “summer dress with thin straps” part of the closet. This one would fit in perfect there! WAY TO GO!
It is awesome:) i love it
like i said the last time you can be a fashion designer
You are amazingly creative and talented. I have enjoyed reading your posts and seeing your pictures. I wish you all the best …
Peace!
You are truly an inspiration to me! I love everything that you do to give the dresses a fresh new look. Now I want to do the same to some of my old clothing. =)
I’m so glad that I came across your blog from Yahoo.
Very cute dress and totally fun blog. The before photos are very entertaining. I mean some of those dresses would scare me to death. I often buy very large thrift store dresses in solid colors, and linen is my favorite find. Pillows and totes have been my target re-dos so far, but I am getting ready to crochet a rug with strips of dresses. My aunt was a master and I have some of her rugs for inspiration.
Absolutely luv it!!! You have great talent… keep on the work miss 🙂
OMG…love love love Day 242. The finished dress is so beautiful….great cut, fits you like a glove…sexy and sweet at the same time. PERFECTION. I want one!
This dress is amazing! I wish I had skills like that!
I Love your idea. I saw you on Yahoo and had to check all your great modifications. Very talented. Way to stretch your bucks!
OMG i loved every single one of your dresses , you are so creative . i wish i could sew . envy envy lol. good luck with the rest .
Love this idea. I keep seeing dresses at the thrift store and think I love that fabric/detail, but hate the cut/fit/collar. Am so going to buy some of them now and fix them! Thanks for the inspiration!
gorgeous!! this is my fave 🙂
Omg. I love all the clothes you make but this by far is my favorite dress! so cute! And im jealous of your skills. I’ve been wanting to buy a sewing machine so I can fix my old clothes or make them into something else like a purse or pillow.
Good Luck! 🙂
First off, I love this dress! Wicked cute. Also, I’ve only just started reading your blog, thanks yahoo! But I was wondering if you were saving the scraps for anything? Perhaps a huge quilt? Might be a fun idea. Also, I think the shoulder pads(almost wrote bads, lol, that works too), would make awesome bra’s. Keep up the awesome sewing!
Girl your Momma ought be proud! You inspire creativity, humility and just plane fun!
Sewing over some 30 years now your methods are repeating history. For history forgotten has a way of repeating itself. Nice to see it do so in such a positive way.
The new going green thing just gives it a cool status after years of us old gals being ridiculed for it.
love it! love this dress most so far from time to date
LOVE LOVE love the dress!!!
That’s like the first dress’s younger, better looking little sister! I just started reading your blog today after seeing your article on yahoo. So enjoyable. This is one of my favorite revisions.
This dress is cute. You look good in this color too.
definitely one of my favorites of your collection!
Oh my word, I adore this dress! You are so talented!
100% adorable. sigh, this blog is genius
Love it!!!! Don’t know how you do this lol
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First, I must say I LOVE your blog. A friend of mine showed it to me, and we have since been inspired to do some thrift shopping and see what we can come up with as well.
Secondly, I must say that I LOVE THIS DRESS. Like, HOLY CRAP, it’s so so so amazingly cute. Your talent in these things is beyond amazing.
Just found your blog and love it! I have more than one dress like Day 242. Can you give us a little more info about what you did with the neckline so we can duplicate it?
Thanks!
Holy Freaking Cuteness! This is one of my faves too. Every time I read this blog I think “ahh, to be young, pre-kid and have boobs that high up!” Seriously, enjoy them while you can. I wish I would have taken pictures.