35 Days to Go: $1 Remake

Sep 13, 2012 | 18 Comments

I found a doozy, friends!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Before - 35

Day 35 – Before

This dress was ruffle-y, from the 80s/early 90s brand All That Jazz, and patterned like crazy!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Before 2 - 35

Ruffle City!

I did like all the ruffles going on, however it was a bit too much with the black/lavender/beige/white pattern that felt a bit jungle-ish.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Back - 35

Ruffles, ruffles, everywhere!

I like the bones of the dress and think it can be brought out of the early 90s, because right now I’m still hearing Hootie and the Blowfish in the background :)

I began with my scissors and got cutting!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Skirt Trim - 35

Skirt trim!

I want to make this two pieces – I’m going to use the top part today, so I trimmed the piece in two, following the seam below the top ruffle.  Post-trim, I had all this leftover…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Skirt Scraps - 35

Skirt Scraps

…but will be reusing soon!  The top was separated…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Woo Top - 35

Woo, top!

…and next came the removal of the big shoulder pads!  I took my seam ripper and began to cut those stitches keeping them attached!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Seam Ripper - 35

Seam removin’

Later thick pads!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Pads Out - 35

Pads Out!

Once the pads were out, I put the top on and cinched the area right underneath each arm.  Basically I gathered a bit of the ruffle action and cinched it together to make the ruffle-ing more prominent at the shoulders instead of at the body.  I just used some safety pins so I can remove and play around with it differently next time!

I paired the top with a thick elastic belt, just to break up the pattern a bit and headed off for some sausages and beer to celebrate JMT’s birthday!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - After - 35

Day 35 – After

Oh, and there were pretzels too…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Birthday Hijinks - 35

Birthday Hijinks!

…lots and lots of pretzels.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Pretzels - 35

Pretzels!

Our server even gave us some to take home.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Yep, More Pretzels - 35

Yep, more pretzels!!

I’m literally going to turn into a SuperPretzel by Friday.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Beer Me - 35

Beer Me!

We had fun playing around with the beer steins and sampling each others sauerkraut and sausages!  (The wild boar was pretty delish!)

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Birthday Boy - 35

Go shorty, it’s my birthday!

Such a fun night to celebrate such a fun friend.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Birthday Crew - 35

Birthday Crew!

PS, JMT was totally ringing in the new birth year in my favorite t-shirt…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage T Shirt - Golden Girls

Golden Girls!!

Love the girls!  Love my friends!  And cue the intro tune “Thank You For Being A Friend” now :)

In all · Dollar Dress Remakes
  • Bec

    looks amazing.. and so simple.. u have a great eye for seeing potential

  • http://www.outoforderdesign.com Meghan

    I love the crazy hem shape! awesome job :)

  • diane2809

    I would have been so overwhelmed by the ruffles and the pattern that I would have completely passed this one by…kudos to you – it looks great! And the belt is a wonderful way to break up the pattern. Can’t wait to see what you do with the skirt…

  • AmyLynn98

    Oooh. that made an awesome shirt!!!!

  • Sarah_H.

    And you got a little peplum action going there too. Very now. Go you!

  • cait

    It looks very cute but the way the v sits right over your girly parts reminds me of a cod-piece. Sorry for being the party-pooper. It is cute though.

  • Keenzi

    That dress just seems like something that was so “awesome” at the time & I bet someone had some fun times in it. Love the shirt–and that the former dress is still having good times!

  • http://www.facebook.com/crystal.puckett Crystal Puckett

    I love the redo, but what I want to know is where on earth is that Golden Girls shirt from?!

  • THE Bombshell*

    I HAVE THAT SHIRT! WEAR IT OFTEN! :)

  • emily

    What do you do with all those extra shoulder pads? I bet you could build a mountain out of them by now!

  • champagneforyourbrain

    I love your top and the Golden Girls tee – but where did you get those yummy looking pretzels? I must go there.

  • Blanche Devereaux

    Hahaha yeah keep those ‘Girls references coming – love it!

  • Laura Whitman

    WOW! What a difference. Great job, girl! That belt is amazing (and I kinda wanna steal it) :P Also, that T-shirt is PERFECT. I need to get one of those. :)

    xoxo,
    Laura

  • Lauraly

    Cute! Can’t wait to see what you do with the skirt.

  • Nettonya

    PRETTY! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the bottom of the dress! <3

  • Allison Woods

    Hm…not doing it for me this time.

  • Lovestosew

    The top looks great and your styling is perfect. That belt really helped make that top look as good as it does. I think you should do something with the flip flops, though. Maybe a bedazzle session for them.

  • Chris

    Really cute! I love it!