23 Days to Go: $1 Remake

Sep 24, 2012 | 38 Comments

So this dress is pretty limey green.  Not only is the color bold…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Before - 23

Day 23 – Before

…there are holes at the waist…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Holes - 23

Hole!!

…and holes under the arm.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Holes - 23

More Holes!!!

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with this until I was out and about and came across this Corey Lynn Calter dress…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Corey Lynn Calter Top - 23

Corey Lynn Calter!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Corey Lynn Calter Bottom - 23

The rest of CLC’s piece…

Now I know exactly what I’m going to do!!

Lucky for me those holes at the arms were perfectly placed for me to remove just by ripping them off!!  Both of them!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Sleeve Removal - 23

Sleeves off!

And with those sleeves, I’m using them to help make little flutters at the shoulders, totally like the Corey Lynn Calter inspiration piece!  I trimmed a strip off…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Sleeve Remnants - 23

Remnants!!

…then started pinning it around the tops of the sleeves.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Pinning Sleeve - 23

Starting the Flutter!

Once the fabric was fully attached…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - All Pinned - 23

All Pinned!!!

…I sewed the sleeves in place! (…as well as those pesky holes that were found all along seams in multiple areas!)

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Sewing Machine - 23

Sleeve and hole sewing!

With the bones of the dress ready to go, I had to find some buttons.  I had the image of Corey Lynn Calter’s dress on my phone so it would be easy to match!  After some serious sifting, I found three perfect buttons!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Button Matching - 23

Button Matching!!

I pinned the buttons in place to get an idea…

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Button Lining Up - 23

Buttons all lined up!

…and then unstitched the one inch seam right next to the buttons, with a seam ripper to really match.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Seam Ripper - 23

Later Seam!!

Corey’s dress had button closures, so I decided to make my own out of elastic!  Since I don’t have lime colored elastic in my kit, I colored some with a matching Sharpie from their 80s Glam collection!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Sharpie That Elastic - 23

Sharpie time!!

With the elastic colored and pinned in place along with the buttons, I began to work on some hand stitching to keep everything in place!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Hand Sewing - 23

Hand Stitching!!

Once it was all sewed down, my dress was ready to wear!!

Day 23 - After

Day 23 – After

It was a super hot day, however this piece was totally breezy and comfortable to wear.  I’m not gonna like, I still sweat my face off, however for being polyester it wasn’t as bad as one would think.

I loved the little buttons!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - ECU!- 23

Buttons ECU!!

Sunglasses, a high bun that just wouldn’t stay high today, and my flips gave me a most chilled and comf ensemble.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Dancing in the Streets - 23

Dancing in the Streets!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!!

In all · Dollar Dress Remakes
  • Sue

    Looking good as always Marisa. Love it.

    • newdressaday

      Thank you Sue!!

  • sandra

    this is sooo pretty!

  • Jen S.

    This is fantastic! I love that you left it long and the buttons- to cute!

  • Btejkl

    Love it:)

  • http://foryourtastebudsonly.blogspot.com/ Roxanne

    Love the fact that you kept the length, and you kept the middle diamond thing below the bust area! Makes for a flowy simple dress.

  • Sarah_H.

    I had that dress. I wore it to a high school class reunion in 1980. Flowing poly knit, check. long sleeves, check. Ankle length, check. Mine was a pale aqua and made from a Simplicity pattern. Love your modernized version!

    • newdressaday

      Ooh would love to see a picture Sarah!

  • http://twitter.com/jodywallace Jody Wallace

    The sleeve change is a great improvement! Those long tight poly ones looked so uncomfortable.

  • Wom Mom Ethne www.wom-mom.com

    This is gorgeous.

  • jenny

    think it wouldve looked cuter if youd left it buttoned up.

  • brenda

    absolutely one of your best!!color looks great on you too..

    • newdressaday

      It’s a color I don’t think I’ve ever done! I have another similar dress that I’m going to work on soon :)

  • Margo Slaby

    Woah. Mind = Blown. That’s beautiful…

  • katie

    another way to get multi colors for your elastic loops is to use the hair thingies. they come in lots of colors and designs. I use them for closures all the time…

    • JanF

      What a great suggestion!

    • newdressaday

      Totally genius Katie!!

  • Sue Kol

    i like the length, love the color on ya and the flutter sleeves. In short, love it!

  • tracie

    It would be pretty to add some colored/patterned ribbon to the bottom too, like the other dress great redo

  • http://www.facebook.com/tollyfaye Tolly Bockbrader

    Very cute, and only 23 days, I am almost sad about year two ending!

  • Ellie

    Only change is I would have nixed the buttons because of the diamond detail right at the cleavage. Too much going on right there now.

  • Cindy F

    Love this dress – I think this is one of your best!

    • newdressaday

      So happy you love Cindy!

  • Lovestosew

    I love the new dress. The buttons bother me though. I think the dress could have done without them. Or at least do them up, somehow it looks a bit messy.

  • Alisha Schultze

    Quick question…in some of your pictures I notice you don’t open all the seams and that you topstitch. Is that how you re-vamp your gorgeous finds??

  • peachy

    very nice i wish i have your talent so that their won’t be a boring dress day for me :) ))

  • http://profiles.google.com/nmlheilke Natalia Heilke

    That’s very flattering! Nice alteration. :) And I do love the bright, bold colour.

    • newdressaday

      I was afraid of the bold coloring at first and then really loved the end product!

  • Allison Woods

    It looks great, but I agree, the buttons are too much. Nuke them!

    • Allison Woods

      I think I also want you to shorten it, it looks a little costumey long. OK, I’ll shut up now.

      • Reese

        Lol. I thought the buttons should go or be completely buttoned up. I too thought there was too much fabric at the bottom. Maybe take it in some more?

  • joeys gal

    i’m sorry…i want to compliment you, but the stain on the front is preventing me. i think it would be interesting to see which of these dresses become fixtures in your wardrobe. you are clever. and intimidated by n-u-t-h-i-n-g!!

  • laura

    I love this dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is such a me dress. I actually have 2 shirts in the style of the before dress that are flowey (is that a word?) on the bottom and I think that sleeve change will have them back out of my closet! How did you achieve the Flutter effect? Did you just fold over a little and then pin and sew? I’m excited to do these shirts!

  • anita

    an unfortunate spot (covered by your right hand in last photo – coincidence???) distracted me but overall, keeping the length is probably better than shortening to remove the stain.

  • Christine in Texas

    A nice re-do but, I would had taken it in a little more on the sides. Have you thought about doing a button vest or making flower design with the buttons? I think you could come up with some great ideas?

  • Terri

    Sorry, hon. I usually like everything you do, but I agree with those who thought the buttons should go or be totally buttoned up.

  • X-Pert

    Better… phew… much better!

  • fan

    ONE OF YOUR BEST love love love this dress. soooooo cute!!!!