How bad of a host am I to JUST NOW be posting the restyle I received for the Restyling Exchange 2017!? I have to admit it was a bit of poor planning on my part. I was out of town for the reveal weekend and once I missed the posting party I just let it all fall by the wayside. Never the less I am so excited to share this with you. Last week, my restyler Sophie shared her process for restyling this dress for me. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already. Read on for my take of this fun refashioned vintage dress.
You guys, the original dress was so nineties. I inherited it from my cousin who has amazing style and is always cleaning out her wardrobe (lucky for me). I hung on to it because it’s light and slinky and I love the watercolor-esque floral print. However I found myself not wearing it much because 1. It was a bit too short, and 2. It didn’t quite fit right. It was a little too roomy around the chest area, and it had that horrible dated waist tie at the back. I knew this would be the perfect choice for someone else to restyle as I feel like it had “good bones” and a lot of potential.
The dress now is so fun and flirty. I can’t even begin to tell you all the amazing things that Sophie did to my dress. She really went all out. (Seriously go read her guest post.) One of my absolute favorite details is the added pockets. Y’all KNOW I love pockets. Sophie gave me these fun slash front pockets and was able to use the discarded sleeves as the facings.
My next favorite new detail is this back! I also sent a men’s button down shirt along with the dress that really brought out the blue in the floral print. I knew the dress was tiny to begin with so I wanted to make sure Sophie had enough to work with. She gave me this really neat design feature at the back of the dress as well as a waist band and some interesting style lines in the front. Another thoughtful thing Sophie did (which I NEVER would have thought of) is add a little insert under the back waistline to bring down the back of the dress a bit. It gives it the slightest hi/lo hem and works out so perfectly because my bubble butt would have been dying to peak out the bottom of this shorty. (Sophie how did you know!?)
Other things I love about this refashion: She gave me smaller buttons which was so smart because the larger buttons really dated the dress. I do however miss my lighter colored buttons so I might trade them out for white ones of the same size. I’m utterly baffled at all the things Sophie did to improve the fit of this dress. The top fits better and the bottom has more twirl (this girl LOVES twirl). AND she left me plenty of breathing room in the under arms (a top priority for me).
Overall I am oh-so happy with my restyle… and so impressed! This dress is going to be a summer staple. It’s perfect for hot days when I need a light and breezy something to wear. Again, if you missed Sophie’s guest post where she goes into more detail about how she re-constructed this baby, please go check it out here.
I am so glad at how this restyling exchange turned out! Everyone seems to really have had a good time with it. We will be hosting another next year so please thing about joining us!
Happy Sewing!
Leave a Reply