Dress Rescue 3: Purple Velvet Dress

So, I kind of lied to you when I said that this would be last Monday. Not intentionally, but I was doing schoolwork and other important things (What? TV Tropes and the ridiculously pointless yet addicting games on Neopets are very important things to me), and so I just kept on forgetting to do this post. I'll try and do two a day for the next week to make up for it. I know, I am a Bad Blogger. *hangs head in shame*
Anyhoo, now that my self-flagellation is done, here is the candidate for Dress Rescue #3. This is a very boring dress in a very lovely fabric. It's in dark purple velvet for heaven's sake! (If you're starting to notice a pattern in my fabric obsessions, give yourself a cookie.) But look at the style:

(Apologies for the white cat hair fuzzy on the front of the dress; I didn't notice it until after I loaded the pics and I'm too lazy to redo them.) Snore. Yawn. There's nothing intrensically BAD about it, it's just so...blah. This fabric deserves a better dress! I mean, it's dark purple velvet with blue undertones, for Heaven's sake! VELVET! And PURPLE!!! The picture really doesn't do it justice:

This one has boring long sleeves, a boring cut (although I do rather like the rounded neckline), and is just generally...mundane.
Except for this rather bizarre seaming that bisects the front of the dress for no good reason:
And it, hits me at that very unflattering mid-calf length that makes my legs look short and stumpy and generally unappealing. (I'm sure that someone somewhere out there has legs that look fantastic in mid-calf stuff, and more power to 'em, but for me this length is like Kryptonite of the Legs.) So, how am I going to rescue this one? I actually love the neckline, so I'm keeping it as it is, but I'm going to sprinkle it with little tiny rhinestones for a little flavor. I'm going to cut it off at just above the knees, and restructure the sleeves so they're elbow-length and flared. I also have a little purple/blue lace hanging around that I may or may not use. It all depends on if I like it better simpler (unlikely) or want to do it all fancy as is my wont.

Dress Rescue 2: Black Velvet Dress

While I was browsing through the racks at Savers, some black crushed velvet caught my eye. I pulled it out and found this:

I was rather taken with the silhouette (fitted bodice + full swirly skirt=win). I liked the scoop neck, and it's a great length. Alas, there were a couple of drawbacks. The first being that it, like yesterday's dress, buttons down the front. ARRRGH! Once again, the nefarious button-front rears its ugly head. This must be dealt with. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but trust me, it's not of the good.

And, also like yesterday's dress, it has weird sleeves. They're sort of puffy/bunchy at the top, and uncomfortably tight at the bottom. They hit at that weird length that's just about two inches about the wrist. They are just bad, bad sleeves. Sleeves of EVIL. Armed with only my pinking shears and imagination, I must defeat these sleeves before they can take over the world. (Or just be fugly forevermore, which is just as bad.)

So, how am I going to rescue this dress? Well, first things first, the buttons go. I'm going to remove all the buttons and the edge with the buttonholes, then seam the skirt down the middle from the waist. Above the waist I'm going to put grommet tape so I can lace it up the front with a variety of colored ribbon. I'll cut the sleeves to cap sleeves and maybe put a little white lace trim beside the grommet tape for contrast. I'm looking forward to this one- it should make a very pretty, versatile goth/medieval style dress that should be unique without being costume-y. Come back tomorrow for part 3 of Dress Rescue: Fort Collins Edition.

Dress Rescue 1: Brown Renaissance Dress

I am a complete sucker for things that need to be rescued. Be it a scruffy kitten, a beat-up or broken doll, or a careworn tea towl, there is little I love better than finding something that needs a little TLC, cleaning it up and making it better. Such creatures are three of the dresses I bought in Fort Collins on my recent trip to visit my cousins. (Hi, Shannon and Tasha!) All of them are decent at heart, but need a little work to become the fabulous dresses I know they can be. I believe in their potential! C'mon, dresses, reach for the stars, achieve your dreams, [insert more inspirational twaddle here]! This is the first one, and the one that I think will be the most challenging. I picked this dress up at Repeat Boutique for $5:

Isn't it pretty? It's about six sizes too big for me, (I think I could put another person in there with me, as a matter of fact. A skinny person, granted, but still another person), but it's chocolate brown, brocade-and-velvet, and covered in lovely, lovely embroidery of the kind for which I am a major sucker. And did I mention it was only $5? (I'm also a sucker for a bargain.)

The catch? Well, there are a couple:
First, it has these weird, cuff-button balloon-y sleeves. I'm not much in favor of cuffs, and I'm definitely not in favor of them on otherwise huge, billowy sleeves. It makes them look like they're eating your arms or something. I like loose sleeves, so to me the idea of sticking a tight, itchy cuff on the bottom of 'em seems highly nonsensical.

Second, it buttons down the front. I don't like this at all, to be honest. To me, flowy renaissance-gypsy-boho-whatever and buttons just do not mix. Button-down brings to mind first professional, then Western-wear aesthetics that really don't fit with the rest of this dress at all. It's rather jarring, and more than pointless for a really billowy pullover garment. (It has a sizing tie in the back, for heaven's sake! Why do you need buttons?) And the buttons are kind of ugly.

So, how am I going to rescue this dress? First, I'm going to recut it so it fits in the top and flows down to a looser skirt. I'm going to do a little tailoring underneath the arms so that it actually fits there and doesn't have thirteen yards of extra fabric flapping around like wings. Then I am going to take off the buttons and seam it down the front, eliminating the buttons and buttonholes altogether. Finally, I'm going to cut the sleeves on an angle so they have a sort of pixie-hem look to them. I hope to have pictures of the successful reconstruction soon! Tune in tomorrow for part deux of Dress Rescue for the dresses I bought in Fort Collins.