17 Days to Go: Samantha’s NDAD Creation

Sep 28, 2012 | 17 Comments

Samantha sent this lovely remake my way.  Check it out – the before shot is amazing!!

I visit your site daily and am constantly amazed, delighted, and inspired by your creations.  Half the time I cannot see the potential in a dress and at the end, I’m always amazed with the result.  For a really long time I’ve been wanting to remake a dress due to your inspiration and this summer we had three weddings to attend so rather than buying a new one (or three) dresses I decided to finally recreate one of my own!!  After spending a few hours visiting numerous thrift shops I finally found what I was looking for at the Salvation Army for $1.90.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Suzanne

Samantha – Before

I immediately saw the potential and loved the vertical strip.  The quilting at the bottom seemed to call my name as I make baby quilts for my friends.

Woo, total score for $1.90!!  I love the floral print, but the rest is, well…

I can’t wait to see what you do!

Whomever had owned this dress previously must have found it a bit large because they tried to hand-stitch the top part to make it fit.  However, this made the neckline very ugly.  I had considered your v-neck solution, but after removing the hand-stitching, I realized that the neckline was quite lovely, so I kept it as it was.  I removed about 12 inches from the bottom and 6 inches from the sleeves then hemmed them.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage Patches - Suzanne

Patchworkin!!

 There were a few holes on the seams that were easily fixed, and I had to take in quite a bit from the sides and the back as the top part of the dress was about three sizes too large for me.

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

Samantha – After

My husband had his doubts when I brought the dress home but he was so impressed with the end result that he bought and wore a (matching) bow-tie and repeatedly showed the before picture to all our friends.

Thank you for your daily inspiration!

How awesome that your husband was showing the before picture to all of your friends!  It’s amazing that he’s totally on board.  And the matching bow tie…icing on the cake!  Thanks so much for sharing Samantha, and I hope you continue this remaking trend for the rest of the weddings on your schedule!

In all · Reader Creations
  • http://www.facebook.com/lucia.burnett Lucia Green

    Great remake and what a cute couple!

  • Tasmanian Minimalist

    I love this- what a cool frock !

  • Natchez

    I had strong doubts but you pulled this off. Really striking! Not to mention that bow-tied hubby is unique accessory!

  • Lynn McNeill

    How cute! I bet you could use the cut off part, too! thanks for the inspiration!

  • http://www.facebook.com/kate.martin.90226 Kate Martin

    Great job — what an adorable re-do! And right-on about the neckline too; now it’s really flattering.

  • Tori Benick

    This was such a great find! I love this! :)

  • Arshia

    Gorgeous Sam! You are so talented. Loved the after! I like the strip on the skirt part.

  • diane2809

    Adorable – I would love to wear that myself! Are you going to do something with the bottom part? The patchwork design was cute…

  • Laura Whitman

    Such a good job! Awww. How cute is your hubby? I love that he was so proud of your work. And he bought a matching bow tie? Sounds like he is a keeper. :)

    xoxo,
    Laura

  • Samantha

    Thanks everyone and especially Marissa for posting this! I had a great time transforming this and used some of the leftover black for another dress, but I haven’t figured out what to do with the quilted parts. Something will come up soon, I’m sure!

  • Terry

    Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.

  • Sue

    Cute remake and cute couple. :)

  • Lauraly

    What a lovely improvement!

  • Econowiser

    That’s HOT!!!

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

    The only thing better would be if you could have somehow retained the baby quilt portion as part of your skirt…I wonder if it could be incorporated into something else?? Very cool.

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

    Fantstic! Very modern now!

  • Allison Woods

    REALLY CUTE. I saw that you had a winner in this with the before picture for sure.