Epic Peplum Refashion

Ok on to the 3rd Challenge for Refashion Runway Season 2! Peplum. Now I must admit I have not really jumped on the peplum bandwagon fashion wise. I am sort of wide in my midsection and I have sticks for legs. To me peplum has to be done just right in order to compliment your particular body shape. So this made me nervous some. I opted for this dress I found at goodwill by the pound. Maybe $2 at the most for this dress. And it was epic!!

The funniest thing was when I was home this past weekend with this dress there was something about it that made me go hmmmm. There was only 1 tag on the dress, which was the company name- Richilene New York. There was no wash tag or care instructions, which does say much for a formal dress. But it was also not sized. Anywhere! The fabric was awesome and even tho the dress is massively hideous it was actually really well made. This is not a home sew, this is something else. So I searched the internet for the company to see what I could find. My jaw literally dropped to the floor. Richilene was a small couture house in New York City back in the 70/80/90s. They specialized in evening and cocktail gowns. From what I can tell they are closed. Some of these vintage dresses can fetch several hundred dollars online. Holy cow and I spent maybe $2! So how this couture dress wound up in Mobile, Alabama is beyond me. Also I have yet to find a copy of this dress, who knows, do I have the only one? In my little mind I'd like to think so. Reality maybe not. But whoever got this dress got it made to fit their exact measurements-I wound how much this actually cost.

Ok I digress.... the biggest issue of this dress besides being epic hideous, is the fact that it doesn't zip up at all

What I did was take off the sleeves and rip out close to a million stitches only to discover it was gathered poof for a dress. I removed the long skirt from the drop waist midsection. I cut the midsection in half to create just a waist band, I used the leftover from the midsection to add to the back of the dress so I could zip up the dress. For the skirt I cut at the gathering stitches line. There was still so much fabric leftover. I cut the upper portion of the skirt in half yet again to use one half for the peplum and the other half for the skirt. And yes I could walk in skirt- there was that much fabric!!!!!!! I attached the top with the peplum and the skirt. Added back the zipper. Fitted the dress. And then adjusted the peplum to the length I felt comfortable with. Not too poofy, not sticking straight out, just a slight gather. The blind hemmed the peplum and the skirt. Done! Here is my new Little Black Peplum Dress (LBPD). Perfect for an upcoming wedding rehearsal I need to attend in a few weeks.

And the beauty of it is I have the fabric from the sleeves and the bottom part of the dress I can use in the future to create another frock entirely. I can't wait!!! For more of what I did check out my blog. Now to go and check out the FIERCE refashioning competition going on at Refashion Runway.

Cheers,
Lauren