Nautical Sundress

One in the bag for our upcoming week in the Isle of Wight! Nautically appropriate of course, but whether I'll have the opportunity to wear it without wellies and an umbrella, well....we live in hope! As you can see from the before photo (forgive me the unstraightened hair!) it started out life as a vintage Laura Ashley denim dress. The length didn't really suit me (a bit swampy) and it cut in under the arms so I played around with it for a couple of days and came up with the revamped version on the right....

I had to recut the armholes which meant removing the existing binding. I replaced in with self made French navy bias used as a kind of reverse facing; rolling the entire width of it to the front and topstitching it down; so that it's"edged" with the original denim. I added a matching band to the empire waist, created a matching faux button placket and added some gold nautical buttons from my stash....

I re cut the hem to scoop low at the back and higher at the front so the overall effect is kinda tea length. I mean...the general public can only handle so much pale and pasty leg activity...I'm considerate like that ;) It's a lovely full skirt and I'm pleased the finished dress has retained that vintage vibe whilst having a more on trend feel to it as well. At least I hope that's what I've achieved, ha ha!

By the way, has anyone else been massacred by mosquitoes? You can just about see a large dark patch on the front of my right ankle. That's the remainder of a monster mosquito bite (one of many but I won't show you the one that bit THROUGH my jeans right into my buttock...!) that went a bit nasty. They do seem to love pale skin. Maybe a bit of fake tan will fool 'em.....