172 Days to Go: $1 Remake

I absolutely fell in love with this piece when I found it. New Dress a Day - DIY - Vintage Dress - Too Big Before Shot - 172

OK, there were ripped lace sleeves and some of the seam was coming undone up top, but just look at that fabric?!  I love the colors and the medley of flowers - this would totally be what I'd pick at the florist.

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Unfortunately in the current state, these flowers are dying!

I started by getting rid of the tattered lace straps.

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Once those were removed...

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...it was time to mend the upper seam.  I pinned down an inch from the top of the piece...

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...and also pinned the body where I wanted to take the piece in.  I'm going for a summery, strapless, flowy skirt-esque dress, so I want the top as fitted as possible.

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With my pins in place I began to stitch.  A new seam was created up top and the dress was taken in about two and a half inches on each side.

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After being stitched, I trimmed off the excess fabric from inside the dress.  This was a lovely spandexy-polyester material, so the cutting was easy.

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I folded over the top of the dress one time, added some sandals, and used the already there pockets for my phone/gloss/parking ticket.

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There's really nothing like wall art in an elevator to keep you entertained instead of awkwardly looking at the floor lights light up with a group of random strangers in the same 5'X5' floating cube.  I like to be friendly and smile when I enter the elevator, but sometimes the other passengers aren't so receptive to the niceties.  Scoping out the Toto album art made my day as I hit up Trader Joe's for some rations.

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I even ran into a local reader Carol in line at Ralph's, my second market stop of the day!!  I channeled the beach while I was driving my hot car and enjoyed a little stop in the freezer section at the market and pretended it was a pool - just the things you do to enjoy your 'errand Sunday' instead of actually getting to be at those places.

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Maybe next Sunday my feet will actually be touching real water instead of frozen peas**.

(**Seriously, no frozen peas were harmed by my feet in this post, promise.)