Weeee!! Here's the before shot of this gorgeous number...

Lots of big, extra ruffles going on!

Feeling like the piece has just swallowed me.

Let's get this wearable!!

I began with removing one sleeve!! I started removing stitches from the sleeve that was "in the middle" of all the ruffle action.

I got my one sleeve off...

...and then made a snip at the shoulder to completely open this side of the dress.

I wanted to follow the design and flow of that big ruffle, so I thought that turning this into a one-arm, asymmetrical piece would be just the thing to make it work! With this side of the dress opened up, I began to fold and form the diagonal shape, pinning it in place.

I still needed to take the top portion in, but wanted to get the diagonal shape stitched down. It's much easier to work when there aren't all kinds of pins holding the "work in progress"section in place.

Once the neckline was stitched, I started working on the sleeve that was leftover. I cut it short...

...and then got some elastic ready to add to the end. I pinned under the raw edge leaving about 1/2" which was going to be the area to insert the elastic.

I stitched a new seam at the sleeve and then inserted the elastic in the open space, using a safety pin to guide the elastic around.

The last step was taking in the top of the piece. I measured the area that needed to be fitted and stitched it all in place.

The final look??

I paired the dress with a skinny belt and did some ruching at the waist. I was thinking about shortening the dress but then thought if this was the plan of action, keeping it longer to save some length when it got pulled from the waist would be the smart choice.

I had some fun jumping around to really show the maximum wave of that ruff. That's a big ruff!!

I also paired the dress with a vintage purse from the collection - it has an old Dooney & Bourke vibe, but is just a nameless, lookalike, cream/brown purse. If it was a little larger, it would have been the perfect camera bag!

Oh, and those sunnies are from Forever 21 and are my new favorite purchase. I ended up getting them on the fly when I left my sunglasses at home while I was out running errands on the brightest day ever. Sometimes the forced purchase turns out better than the ones planned!!