103 Days to Go: Andrea’s Donation
I received this gorgeous piece from Andrea in Brooklyn a little while back and finally got to getting it wear worthy!
Hi Marisa!
I was cleaning out my closet when I came across this dress I bought on eBay years back. I love the cotton material, the colors, and the vintage-type, stripe/floral design. At the time, it reminded me of a summer episode of Sex in the City! The top part is tight on me and I was originally going to make it into a skirt but since I do not have any time to work on it, I am passing it along to you as I know it will be in good hands! Enjoy! Take care and happy sewing! Andrea
I was crushing hard on this fabric. Check it out!
Day 103 - Before
I can totally see this pattern and style of dress being something Carrie Bradshaw would have rocked, similar to this vintage piece Patricia Field outfitted her in below…
Carrie & Miranda Summer Dressing!
Small problemo (and the same one as Andrea)…too tight!!
Uh oh!!!!!
I just couldn’t get that zipper pulled up and had to come up with a plan. Guess what? I came up with a plan 
First part of the plan…tweak the top area that’s too tight! I began to remove the stitches in the seams on each side of the body from right below the arm holes down to the waist. This back panel of fabric is going to be completely removed.
Removing seam at the sides!
The left side of the body had the zipper attached…
This won't zip!!
…so I continued removing stitches, detaching the back panel from the zipper. I’m keeping the zipper in place at the moment because I’m still going to be using the bottom portion of it, up to the waist seam.
Won't be too tight for too long!
With the sides of the back panel open on the left and right side of the body, my next step was to fix the zipper. Like I said above, I want to keep the bottom part of the zipper intact so I marked how high I wanted the zipper to go, folded it under at this spot, and hand stitched the ends. The stitches will act as new stops so that the slide and pull doesn’t come off at the end!
Stitch down zipper!
I hit the shoulders next and removed the seams keeping the back panel attached on each side.
Removing the back from the front!
Now the entire back panel is open on all three sides! I created a new seam at the waist and pinned it in place as I’ll be sewing it down shortly.
New soon-to-be open back!
Now the back isn’t going to be completely open. Inspired by the elastic backed dresses from ASOS…
ASOS Elastic Back Dress (Sold Out - was on clearance for $17.40)
…and Mason by Michelle Mason…
Mason by Michelle Mason, Retails - $407
…I wanted to take this the elastic route!! I snagged some thick white elastic…
Elastic!!!
…and dyed it to a lovely lavender shade to match the dress.
Dye!!!
With my newly dyed elastic I made two panels to cross the back horizontally and pinned them in place to prep for sewing.
New back!!
I worked on the shoulder area next! I’m making this a halter-ish top so I pinched and cinched the fabric at the shoulders…
Cinch the ends!
…took some navy elastic ribbon…
Navy elastic!
…and hand stitched the end of the elastic to the cinched shoulder area.
Halter Straps!
With both shoulder areas finished, I stitched the lavender elastic panels to the right side of the back of the dress…
Stitched down elastic!
…and then stitched the new seam at the waist.
Back seam complete!
Because the elastic was only connected to the dress on the right side, I took hook and eye closures and similar to the back of a bra, added two hooks to each elastic strip and the coordinating eyes to the left side of the fabric to hold the elastic in place.
I was finally finished with the piece!! From too tight, to just right!!
Day 103 - After
I pretty much fell in love with the back of the dress. A bit tedious to tackle all the steps, but ultimately super easy to complete.
From behind!
My vintage navy Candies always seem to come in handy!!
Whirling Dervish!
Fun summery dress for weekend hangs.
Andrea, thank you so much for sending this my way. I had so much fun wearing it!!
