You got a preview of today's dress already...
The dress was literally coming apart at the seams!
Lots of frayed edges and thread stragglers...
...that just didn't make it wearable. However, I was ready to nurse it back to health á la Young Frankenstein (gotta love classic Mel Brooks!!) and get it to a state where I could wear it out and about...
Oh, and I wore it out and about!!
I began by removing the shoulder pads that had become filled with bits of sand-like particles. The original pad had disintegrated and bits of the new matter were coming out of the seams. (My floor was covered in the stuff!)
The front of the piece basically had two sections open - the left and right side, both detached at the waist. I wanted to piece it all together so I cinched the right portion and pinned it to the waist, and then repeated the action doing the same thing to the left side. I pinched the material...
...and then pinned it to the waist.
I stitched the new waist in place...
...and had a brand new, connected dress!
The arms and bottom of the dress were fraying, so I pinned and ironed down both areas, prepping for a new arm seam and hem. After everything was pinned, I stitched both in place for a non-raw edge in either area.
Now that the top portion was reconnected, but still open down the center, I folded back each side of the piece at a 45-ish degree angle to make a sharp collar...
...and then used a brooch to pin and keep the center of the dress closed.
Check out the after look...
Sleek and classic, right??
I feel like the original piece either had buttons that had been removed at some point, or there was some sort of seam down the center keeping it together.
What I do know is that the pockets were perfectly placed, and the new brooch-gathered waist was working like a charm!
It was the perfect ensemble for a night out with a bunch of friends doing some downtown LA gallivanting.
We stopped at the new ACE Hotel which totally fit my monochromatic color scheme.
Black and white tiles, black and white jacket, black and white dress...
I love the way this turned out! (And, I have to come here more often to shoot more after looks!!)
I dressed my dress down with a Topshop jacket and a pair of Moschino heels I scored at Buffalo Exchange. A little mix of cocktail and casual to outfit the evening!
