Day 357. 8 days and $9 left to go.

$3 DAY!! Went a little over budge on this one, but it had me at beaded conch shell  :)  Clearly I just HAD to have it. Day 357 - Before

Shoulder pads are on this of course, because what beaded 80s number would be sans the pads??  There is a lot of work that needs to be done but this area needs to be given the most TLC...

Spotty McSpotterson!

It looks like this got some Hi-C Orange drink splattered all over it from a trip to McDonalds in 1984. (PS, Hi-C Orange drink was the ONLY thing I got when I went there for Happy Meals - anyone else feel me?)  On top of the shape, this is going to get some serious fixin.  Ready?

To start off, I'm a sucker for jersey style, racerback tanks - this one by Splendid pretty much floats my boat.

Tank Me!!

I'm going with this style as the inspiration today - make that beaded top shine (hello pun!!)!  First thing's first.  Off with the sleeves!!

Unseaming the sleeves!

I very carefully took my seam ripper and began taking stitches out.  The beadwork didn't cross over from the sleeve to the body of the piece, so there wasn't going to be any issues with cutting through any of the beading.

Le sleeves!

Now that the sleeves were removed, next came taking care of the body of the piece.  Because of my love for the tank, I grabbed one from my closet that had my ideal shape (this one is by bobi) to use as a pattern.

Tank pattern!

I pinned the tank to the top and used it as a stencil of sorts to where I would be cutting and hand sewing new seams.

New front!

I also began pinning the front - I wanted it to be thinner at the shoulders to make the gold and black design pop, so I ended up using the design as a slight guide.  I pinned down the new arm hole and also the areas where I needed to take it in.

This was a hand sewing day and a long one in fact :) This ended up taking around five hours to complete as I made sure the stitching was proper/strong enough so none of the beads would be falling off.  I stitched first then trimmed off after.

Voila!!

After the shape of the piece was created, it was time to work on those orange patches.  I ended up using the sleeves to take care of the situation.

Sleeves!

I trimmed off the black flowers...

Patchin'

...as well as some of the sleeve's edging to make a little appliqué to hide the spottage.

Where did you go orange spots?

I pinned the piece in place and continued down the hand sewing road.

More hand sewing!

Let me just say that my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head after this was over!  Had some minor prickage on my fingers from the needles, but all in all it was more than worth it.

It was a chilly night, but totally the right, glammy piece to wear out to celebrate some birthdaying with my favorite gal Beth Shax.

The birthday gal!

I loved the way it turned out!  And the back...

Back-liqué

I have to say, Beth totally rules in general and the certain cake that was offered to her guests just reiterates her awesomeness.

What, what!!!

I mean, Carvel?!?  Literally didn't even think about how cold is was because anything Carvel makes me warm and fuzzy inside.  Their delectable chocolate crunchies in the center of their cakes are like magic in my mouth.  I almost fainted when watching 30 Rock's "Reaganing" episode a few weeks ago and Jenna got one of these...

Free ice cream for life? Dream come true!

So if you happen to ask what do I want for Christmas?  One of those :)

It was a fun eve of friends and ice cream and by the end of the night, my eyes totally readjusted.

Bead City USA!!

"Ice ice baby, too cold, too cold."