Remodeled Dress

 It all started with a cute little sheath dress with straps and

 oodles of these black roses with olive ribbon leaves.  As you see, I've removed, with great difficulty, all the roses (each pock mark was a rose) and I underpinned these three to show how it might have looked.  Unfortunately each rose was attached with a brad or two so I wound up with a mess.

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 Here's the finished product.  I've removed one strap, closed the back pleat opening, added tulle to the remaining strap, ruched tulle to the bodice and tulle tufts to the bottom of the dress. 

I added a removeable feather and rhinestone/pearl brooch that can also be worn in the hair or on a purse.  I like it and if I were much younger, would wear it in a minute.  I love black anyway.  My dresses have been selling at S'more Couture so I keep making them.  I love remodeling a vintage dress and making it for today.  This one was a late 70's-early 80's Tina Hagen, who was actively making dresses until about 1985 until she went into home decorating.  I like the finished product but sometimes the work is difficult.  Seeing ones like this make it worth it, though.

Three Remakes



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  This first one started as a zip-up-the-back bustier, probably 60's or 70's vintage with stretchy fabric and stays.  I added a black half slip and four tiers of tulle, 3 black and one silver, and made a matching tulle flower with an added grey and iridescent rhinestones brooch. 

 This little number began as the top only of a voile dotted swiss dress that had been cut off.  I added a short skirt with lycra (originally a skort), nylon chiffon overskirt in a bouffant style, surrounded the bottom with a black boa, added a grosgrain ribbon belt and a chiffon and feather flower with three pearls in the center. A while back I showed a photo of the back of the dress after I had paid to have a zipper sewn in.  The skirt and top were offset by about 3/4 inch.  I sewed the ribbon into the seam of the zipper on the back and made a loop (by chain stitching button/carpet thread) on the other side of the zipper.  Four other loops hold the ribbon firmly in place and the offset back does not show.  I thought long and hard about that one.   Finally, it is done. 

 This dowdy little half-calf length 50's dress with a cut-out and rhinestone studded neckline would get laughed off the floor at this generation's homecoming dance but...


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 this one won't!  I cute-ed it up a bit by removing the "flower" from the neckline and shortening the skirts.  The pink underskirt was under the original dress but I gave it a prominent place by allowing it to be about 1 1/2 inches lower than the top skirt.  I added a cummerbund from the left over pink fabric (taffeta) and a matching pink and black flower with a big rhinestone button in the middle.
As you see, I've been pretty busy the last day and a half since our return from vacation.  I think all of these turned out very cute and I hope they all sell.  Time will tell.  Now I need to rest.