Day 237. 128 days and $127 left to go.

So the green dress today was completely inspired by my evening plans…l was heading back to the Hollywood Bowl for some Planet Earth Live! action.  The LA Philharmonic was playing along with one of my FAVE Discovery Channel shows and I wanted to get as green as possible to celebrate the planet!

Day 237 - Before

Oh, and I did. This large green puppy had a little too much length and these long sleeves are not conducive to summer weather at all.  I got to some changin…

Cinch & Pin!

I didn’t like the neckline, so I turned the dress inside out and pinched the area at the bottom of the V shape.  I took a safety pin and pinned it in place!

Voila!

Boob Ruching!!

Next thing I did was trim the sleeves short.  Didn’t want to sweat buckets, so I cut them in half.

Halfsies!!

After the sleeves went short, so did the length.  I cut off about a foot and a half of fabric as I wanted to keep it right around the knees.

Soon-to-be Short!

After my adjustments, I suited up the machine with a lovely pale green shade of thread, stitched down the sleeves, and gave it a new hem.

Edge Sewing!!

My dress was complete and I was channeling my inner Norma Desmond.

I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille.

Well, here’s the true close up…

Close Up!

I even took some extra fabric, tied it into a little bow and pinned it to the cinched area on my chest!  We watched clips of Planet Earth (that snow leopard episode was amazing!) and in true Bowl tradition, we had some cocktailing to accompany.

Before I knew it, the next part of my eve gave me a little shower. A champagne shower, to be exact.  As I went to open a bottle of champagne that I schlepped for a mile to create mimosas with some freshly squeezed OJ (yay for orange trees in Los Angeles backyards!), there was an explosion!!  Didn’t realize how powerful my hike up the hill was! Before I knew it, the most amazing pop was heard, the cork was airborne, and the bottle was foaming everywhere.  My sweatshirt, meant to keep me warm, was not working any longer.

Champagne Explosion!!

Despite being soaked,  there was still a bit of champagne in the bottle that didn’t spray out.  (PS, apologies to the person who may have gotten corked when it flew into the air.)

We put it to good use – polished it off and opened a new bottle.

There's about half the bottle left...

I had a second shot of redemption, but that soon got kicked to the curb.  Explosion number two arrived and even though it didn’t pack as big or a punch or pop as loud, I was still soaked with alcohol.  Love that my hair was even dripping!  Don’t worry, we drank everything down to the last sip.

TGIF!  Happy weekend friends

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Day 167. 198 days and $195 left to go.

OK, this before pic is rather genius…

Day 167 - Before

It’s like I’m in a big clown dress, just sans a rainbow wig and red nose.  There is this weird ruffle collar with some crazy long sash to tie at the neck which was just not happening.  Plus with the polka-dotted fabric, it was all very, very wrong.

First thing’s first – I had to get rid of the ruffles as well as that sash around the neck.  I used my seam rippers to take it all out.

The leftovers!!

Once that was done, I cut the sleeves in half and shortened up the length.

Later skirt!

Then a little bit of seam ripping down the front of the dress…

V Neckin'

…brought a little V-neck action to fruition!  After those three tweaks, I put the dress on and used the sash that was around the neck as a belt.

Day 167 - After

This one turned out fabulous!!  Loved the length and the new dropped neckline.  I paired a vintage gold tassel necklace from eBay that fit perfectly right in the center of the V as well as my brown sandals.  Just the thing to meet up with girlfriends for happy hour.

I went with the Delirium…

Beer Me!!

Nothing beats a delish Belgium brew and it was the drink that we started and ended the night with.  Today Happy Hour carried us all the way to last call…

Robot time!

…where I feel the need to dance the robot.  As some old school 80s tunes jammed in the background like, The Mary Jane Girls’ “In My House”, I just had to bring the moves.  If you were there, you would have been dancing alongside me.

TGIF!  Happy weekend friends

Day 166. 199 days and $196 left to go.

Summer dress time today friends!  It was pretty warm so I dug into the stash of pieces that I’ve been holding onto for the July/August files.  I was sweating just driving in my car, so the summer dress was totally valid today.

Day 166 - Before

Such a cute floral print and I loved the flutter sleeves.  This dress had lots of elastic but since my hands got to it many, many years after creation, the elastic was worn out.  You know when super old rubber bands get that weird, hard consistency and crack instead of stretch?  That was going on here.  On top of the worn out elastic, the straps and body of the dress was on the larger side, so I began pinning and taking in.

I detached both straps first with the assistance of my seam ripper.

Straps On, Straps Off!

Before I reattached, I took the dress in from the back.

So long pocket!

I had a lot to sew – there were many inches taken away – so the pockets couldn’t be saved 😦   No biggie though, I reattached the straps and the dress was in tip-top shape.

Day 166 - After

It’s fitted now and ready for my hot car and a little James Taylor & Carole King action.

Group Shot!!

Such a wonderful night of excellent company, pre-show picnicking, and sitting under the stars of Los Angeles singing along to “I Feel the Earth Move.”  An awesome way to ring in the almost-summer temperatures we’ve been seeing!

"I close my eyes at night." (Maybe just for a sec, but totally to take in the music!)

“Wondering where would I be without you in my life.” (Would be home watching 30 Rock on my couch this Thursday night.)

“I want to stop and thank you baby.” (Yes, many thanks to the lovely MW and her parents for the evening!)

“I just want to stop and thank you baby.” (Ooh, and can’t leave out that heckler in the row behind us.  Thank you too!)

“How sweet it is to be loved by you.”  (Well they don’t even know me, so I’m not sure how much they love me, but I can say this for sure.  I heart CK & JT.)