Old Lady Curtains to Party Dress

When I first saw this dress I was looking for lace I could steal for another project.  Initially I was going to pass this by, but then I realized that the waist "belt" was the same as on a dress I own and adore.  So this came home with me.

I didn't take a lot of during shots because I am a fool.  My first step was to rip all the seams holding on that horrible collar and modesty insert thing in the front.  Then I detached the sleeves, which took the shoulder pads along with them.  This left the front of the bodice completely unpieced.  I put the dress on inside out and pulled up the front until the "belt" was just below my bust, since this is how it sits on the dress I love.  I pinned the straps waaay down the back, unzipped, and chopped the length off the top of the back that I now didn't need.

 

I hated the shape of the back, so I cut a square neckline.  Then I pinned and hemmed the bodice, back, and neck holes.  I sewed the center of the bodive together a bit so it wasn't cut down to my ribcage.  I raised the hem to my knee, since ankle length was just too much fabric on my 5'0" frame.  I also removed the buttons from the "belt" since they were there for decoration and did not please my eye.

 

I wore it, washed it, and realized that Rayon frays like nothing else!  So I repinned and hemmed allllll my hems again.  No more fray for me!

 

And voila!  A cute party dress with lots of swingy skirt.  The entire time I felt like I was carving away all the bad stuff to find the cute dress underneath.  It's given me so much confidence to be able to pull this off.  If I can refashion this I can refashion anything.