{Re*Made}: Lil' Blue Dress Makeover

So here it is July, and it seems I've failed to complete my little design resolution.  Well, yes and no.  I started May's project in May, but only just recently completed it.  And I'm calling it a bust.  I'm so displeased with its turnout that I am not going to post pictures.  I attempted the makeover of a little wooden magazine rack that was left in the house.  It had a broken handle and some other minor cosmetic issues.  I painted it, tried to repair the handle, even added our monogram to the sides, but in the end, it just wasn't pretty, and I didn't like it.  I probably wasn't much inspired in May anyways.

May was a wild and difficult month for my husband and I.  It started with my giving notice at my work after making a decision to go back to school and study graphic design. Woo hoo! I am super excited about it and can't wait to learn more about design.   But literally the day after I gave notice, we found out our office will be shutting down due to budget issues.   Crazy!

We also lost my beautiful mother-in-law in mid-May, which was a little unexpected.  It most definitely has been hard to say good-bye and discover life without her.  She is already greatly missed.

On the more positive side of things, my husband was offered a new job towards the end of the month, and gave notice at his current job. We also celebrated my mom passing the one-month mark after being given one month to live. (We are currently going on the three-month mark!) I was also in full party planning mode for the baby shower I gave my sister-in-law this past weekend. My brain was constantly coming up with new ideas so I still have all these little notes and doodles lying around the house with shower ideas.  I'll be posting those pics soon, Woo hoo!

Some of that carried over into June but I was able to complete a project, though not one on my list.  I have actually removed one of those projects because I don't really need it anymore.  You'll see why soon.

(Hopefully I'm leaving you enough in suspense you'll want to come back, he he!)

So, June's *new* {Re*Made}. 

Every now and then, especially when I'm watching Project Runway, I think I could be a clothing designer.  I mean, come on, how hard can it be to pin fabric to a mannequin, right??  I can work a sewing machine, too.  To my credit, I have made myself a few shirts rather successfully, but they were following a pattern, not from scratch.  This project is about one such episode when I thought I could transform a plain-jane dress to something a little more special, and vintagey.  It's certainly no Project Runway winner, but I really like the way it turned out.

I had bought this cute little summer dress thinking it would be easy to wear and would go with anything.  But, I'm pretty particular when it comes to clothes (just ask my hubby!) and everything needs to match or coordinate or sometimes have a little somethin' extra.  And this dress needed a little somethin' extra.  It was just so blah.  Definitely easy-breezy, but boring.

I love, love, love the color though!  Peacock blue!

I actually pulled from a couple of places when I decided the dress needed some embellishment.  First, while baby shower shopping in my local craft store, I found these great little muslin flowers and I thought how cute would they be on the dress.  Then I remembered a while back my mom had shown me a ziploc baggie full of vintage lace she had acquired at an estate sale.  I found some eyelet trimming that I thought would be so cute around the bottom of the dress, and a wider piece of lace that I wanted to somehow use at the top.

First I added the eyelet trim to the bottom of the dress.  I kept the jersey fabric stretched a bit as I sewed so the eyelet would give a slight ruffle.

Then I hand-stitched the muslin flowers on just at the waist under the shirring.

Finally, I played with the wide lace.  First I tried cap sleeves, but I couldn't get it to lay right.  After fiddling with it a while, I decided to do a halter with the lace, and have it come to the front almost where my arm meets my shoulder rather than where a normal bra strap would sit.  It gave it a fun vintage look, but a little elegant too.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute.  I actually wore it to the baby shower and it was so comfy and the little halter lace helped keep it up, ha ha.  And even though I used vintage lace, this could easily be done with new stuff.  They actually had some great looking laces in the fabric department of that crafty store.

So, whadya think?

Makes me wanna embellish more stuff! :D
Have a good one!

ttfn...