There was much to be done to get this dress up to date. First step, tackle those shoulder pads.
Oh, what's this:
Yup, that's a second set of mini shoulder pads under the first set of large ones. Frankly, this could have 5 sets of pads and they'd all end up in the trash.
Then, it was time for the sleeves. Much like previous refashions, I prefer to seam-rip the sleeves off, rather than cut them, because it leaves behind a 1/4" hem that is already permanently folded and easy to pin.
It is incredible how time consuming this is. Seriously, I'm talking hours! Delicate material and heavy duty serging make the process even more slow-going.
I took the sides in and had to say a sad farewell to the pleated skirt as it was just too long and I didn't trust my skills to relocate it higher. However, the end result is quite lovely!
Head over to my blog Hems and HaHa's to see the whole seam-ripperiffic process and to weigh in on whether it looks better forwards or backwards.
Happy refashioning!
5 comments:
Oh my that before is a mess! Love the end result!!
-TheRefashStash
:-D :-D :-D - yep, you could have used the shoulder pads separate to create at least a nicely cushioned foot-stool. Yet: once upon a time ... this was high fashion; I remember since being of, aehem, 'matching age'.
As for the pleated skirt: I think I would have tried to incorporate it as well despite similar jitters like yours.
What's your problem/ 'hook for hesitation' ?
I think I'd tried first pinned outside to the inside-out worn dress and probably NOT even right sewn onto the edge of the dress. Rather with an approx. up to 5 cm 'overhang' (= declared 'fashion' = flight forwards when in despair ) of the dress hence a second visible sewing line above the thus created overhang/-lap of the dress over the pleat-fixture ?
Problem with this way:
- the weight of the skirt cold be pulling too much
- horrible precision work of sewing, to get TWO close horizontal lines (= edge of dress AND sewing line for skirt fixture) into a really nice level line*
Yet: this way, dress and pleat-part get a slightly better chance of their own 'drop freedom' - mM !?
LG, Gerlinde
... admires colour of the dress on you as well: suits you very well - mho!
* After aaaall my years of sewing there is still hardly anything else I fear more than a visible straight line of longer than 30 cm; worst: 2 of them pretty close to each other :-o + ;-) !
Came across a similar black dress that I was tempted to take on just for the before and after sans shoulder pads ;) But it didn't have your price tag, so I passed. Great update!
Andrea EOD
Great vision for this monstrosity ... I personally vote for buttons in the back! It turned out very classic and super cute!
Love the color. Nice re-make.
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