Craving Cranberry

While I tend to wear a bunch of black, I have a friend who is always in dark reds, burgundies, and so on.  Her example has inspired me to think more about wearing rich jewel tones: I recently thrifted a beautiful heavy jersey top in a cranberry color that I've been wearing all the time, enough so that I started scanning retail websites for similar things (since I feel a bit weird about wearing the same shirt to work 3 times a week).  Then I remembered I owned something else in a similar color that I hadn't worn in a while:

 I thrifted this dress a couple years ago but wore it only a few times because while the color was great, the loose pleating below the empire waist did nothing for me.  Also, the fabric is sort of heavy which gives nice drape but would pull down the already very low neckline.

I knew I wanted to make it more fitted, and perhaps make it into a top (it is way too cold to not wear pants here, and I've fallen out of wearing leggings). I started by cutting the bodice off, then taking in the "skirt tube" significantly.  Next I used some elastic seam tape to ruche (sp?) both sides (not quite on the sides, but maybe an inch or two forward from the side seams (to try for a slimming effect). 

If you haven't used this tape before, ruching just involves stretching the tape while you sew it onto the unstretched jersey (then the tape contracts, giving the ruching effect).  I also really like the tape for finishing cut jersey edges (it just wraps around the raw cut edge and you zig-zag it on).  Anyway, after sewing the ruched tube onto the bodice again, I got this:

I felt like there was just too much fabric around the hips (partially, going back to ruching below the awkward section caused by wearing pants with a zipper underneath looked unflattering to me), so I cut it off to get this:

I am pleased and I think I will wear this.  Also, if you were keeping track, I still have the piece of fabric I got from taking in the skirt tube and from cutting off the bottom 6-7 inches, so I may be able to make another red thing to wear!