Thrift Flip – Dresses
Back again with more thrift flips! This week I went through a few of the dresses that I didn't find myself wearing anymore. Each of them didn't fit well on my body type, so I felt uncomfortable wearing them out in public. These flips vary from just altering to fit right, to completely changing the dress to something different.
* Just a quick heads up, I am pretty terrible at taking pictures of the process when working on these projects. Honestly, I get in the zone and don't think to document each step. *
I've had this dress for a very long time, and I don't think I've ever worn it out. I originally bought it when I was selling vintage, and when I eventually closed my shop, this was one of the pieces I decided to keep for myself. It is originally an XL, so it was slightly baggy on me, and the straps never fit right.
I started by shortening the straps. I noticed a little section at the top of each strap that looked almost as though it had been added, so I thought that would be a perfect place to start.
I ripped the seams at each side of the addition on the strap that I wanted to remove.
Then I sewed the two ends back together by inserting one end into the other and sewing a straight stitch right along the visible edge.
Finally, I repeated the process for the second strap.
I wanted to bring in the dress about six inches, and thankfully slip dresses have a very straight cut, so that was going to be easy to do.
I pinned along the edges on each side and sewed a straight stitch down with a three-inch seam allowance.
I trimmed the excess fabric, leaving about half an inch on the edge.
The slit detail was something I wanted to keep, so I added that back in by taking out the seams about nine inches from the bottom.
To give it a finished look, I folded in the sides of the slits about half an inch and sewed along that edge.
And this is how the finished product looks. I know it doesn't look like I did much, but the fit is significantly better, and I feel so much more comfortable wearing this out now. The straps no longer slip, and I don't feel like I'm wearing a sack.
Next up is this dress I got from J.Crew Mercantile a few years back. I like the idea of a chambray dress like this, but its cut did not work for my body type. I am busty and small, so a straight-cut button-up dress like this leaves me looking frumpy. The few times I did wear this dress, I had to wear it belted to give me some sort of a waist, but I wasn't a massive fan of the look, and the fabric would bunch up around the belt.
I started this dress by taking out the seams from the armpits down on both sides.
I then tried on the dress inside-out, marking the points where I want the dress to come in.
I wanted to bring the entire dress in about an inch, but I didn't want to have to redo the pockets, so I took about half an inch off the back panel on both sides.
Then, I pinned the fabrics together and chalked out along the curve I was sewing. Obi was generous enough to supervise.
After sewing, I cut off my excess fabric leaving about half an inch and snipped along the curve, so it lays flat.
I decided to cut off the curved bottom of the dress and go for a squared-off base to even things out and shorten the dress just a tiny bit.
I am thrilled with how this turned out. I feel so much more confident in the dress now that it gives me a bit of shape. I have a feeling this is going to become a part of my wardrobe rotation.
I got this long-sleeved baby doll style dress as a hand-me-down not too long ago. I liked the print and the fabric, but it didn't fit right on me. The neckline was a button-up with a long tie for a bow at the top, which wasn't flattering. Additionally, the elastic in the sleeves had stretched out, so it didn't stay on my wrists. Overall the dress felt like I was wearing a giant pillowcase.
I started by fixing the elastic in the sleeves.
I opened up the seam on the sleeves so I could pull out one end of the elastic.
After figuring out about how much of the elastic I needed to remove to get it to fit right around my wrist, I pinned the elastic down and sewed a straight stitch to hold it into place.
I then trimmed the excess elastic and sewed the sleeve back together how it was and repeated the same process on the other side.
The next area I wanted to address was the neckline. I thought it might be cute to have some lace-up detailing in place of the button-up.
I started by adding some more buttonholes on both sides of the neckline.
I didn't have any rope lying around, but I have a ton of embroidery floss, so I braided a few strands of that to use as my string.
I laced up the neckline, starting from the top and tieing it off at the bottom.
The neckline was still coming up higher than I wanted.
I started by removing the collar with the bow tie.
Then, I trimmed down the neckline until there was about an inch above the top buttonholes.
I added the collar back on, now at this lower point, to give it the finished look.
Once Obi was done taking a nap on the dress I sewed the collar on and it was all done.
I initially thought I would need to bring the dress in on the sides, but adding the little bit of skin showing around the neck and chest made the dress feel more flattering. I'm really excited about this dress now. I think it's a great look for a dinner or semi-formal event. It's classy and a little flirty.
I've had this dress for ages. I remember liking it at first, but I'm pretty sure it's shrunk over the years because it is no longer safe to wear out of the house. It is so short that if I raise my hands even the slightest, my entire downstairs is shown off to the world. I just haven't been able to give this one up, so I'm attempting to give this dress an entirely new life—actually two new lives.
I planned to keep the top half as it is, and then try to make something new out of the fabric from the bottom. I started by figuring out how long I needed to keep the top half to make it a crop top.
Once I had an idea of where I needed to cut things, I drew a line and separated the top from the bottom. Obi was obviously super helpful here again.
Since the dress tapered out, I needed to straighten out the bottom of the top half to create the crop top look.
From the straightest point in the side seams, I continued down to the bottom with a straight stitch.
Then I cut off the triangular flap and surged the edges to keep them from fraying.
To finish off the bottom edge of this crop top, I folded about half an inch over and then folded about a quarter of an inch in on that and sewed two parallel straight stitches.
This top turned out exactly how I expected. I liked the fabric and the detailing of the original dress, and I'm excited to wear it in a new way.
Now for the real challenge of creating something completely new.
With the remainder of the skirt fabric, I found the center front and pinned it onto my dress form and pulled the rest of the fabric back tight to get an idea of how much excess I would need to cut off.
Once I had all my measurements marked out, I sewed the center back to the length I needed to fit, which left me with this tube top.
I folded in the top edge about half an inch and sewed that to get a finished edge.
With some of the excess fabric, I made these straps by cutting out one-inch strips, folding them in half, sewing them together, and turning them inside out, so the seams stay encased inside the strap.
I then sewed each strap behind the front and the back of my tube top, keeping the lengths and placements even.
I decided to add a little bit of ruching detail at the front of this top. This is a super simple thing to do, all it is is a straight stitch down the line, and then you pull the top of the string until you get the folds the way you want and tie off the end to hold it in place.
Honestly, I'm really proud of this guy. I think it looks great for something I just made up as I went. I like how the ruching at the top makes the fabric lay and creates an entirely different pattern with the striped fabric.
Hopefully, my explanations of the process make some sense, but these thrift flips were rather easy to accomplish with not much planning. The thing about altering clothes is knowing and understanding how clothes fit you. Once you pay attention to what feels good and what doesn't, it gets easier to make these little adjustments.
Thank you so much for reading!
Love,
Julia Carrington
