Remake: Ruffle Neck Winter Florals

Here's a little teaser for an outfit you will be seeing in a few hours!! New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage winter floral dress - clown collar - Goodwill

I loved this fabric.  It just felt like a hot toddy to me for some reason with all the colors that remind me of cinnamon!!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage winter floral dress - clown collar - Goodwill

Ruffle neck and billowy sleeves aren't quite working for me...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage winter floral dress - clown collar - Goodwill

Check back in a bit to see the results!!

Giveaway: Rhinestone Glasses Necklace

I'm obsessed with this necklace, so I had to pick one up and use as a giveaway! (Sidenote...tons of winners from the past few giveaways will be announced tomorrow! Winners will have lovely emails hitting their inboxes shortly.) I'm a total glasses girl.  My contacts prescription is -7.75 (yikes!), so not only are glasses cute accessories, they're necessities.  I should have coke bottle lenses in my frames without the technology to make the lenses thinner.  Me and Martin Scorsese...glasses BFFs.

New Dress A Day - DIY - rhinestone glasses necklace

So this necklace is totally my jam.  Plus it's this fabulous lime green color which couldn't be more up my alley too!

New Dress A Day - DIY - rhinestone glasses necklace

To enter, leave a comment below with something you have and use that assists you in life.  For me it's my glasses but perhaps it's a best friend who's always there or a particular pan that just helps you get the perfect scrambled egg!  What is one thing that you are grateful for or love having to assist you?  A winner will randomly get chosen next week on the 31st, right before February begins!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remake: Black & White Tattered Dress

You got a preview of today's dress already... New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

The dress was literally coming apart at the seams!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

Lots of frayed edges and thread stragglers...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

...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...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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!)

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

...and then pinned it to the waist.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

I stitched the new waist in place...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

...and had a brand new, connected dress!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

...and then used a brooch to pin and keep the center of the dress closed.

Check out the after look...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

Sleek and classic, right??

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

What I do know is that the pockets were perfectly placed, and the new brooch-gathered waist was working like a charm!

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

It was the perfect ensemble for a night out with a bunch of friends doing some downtown LA gallivanting.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

We stopped at the new ACE Hotel which totally fit my monochromatic color scheme.

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

Black and white tiles, black and white jacket, black and white dress...

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

I love the way this turned out!  (And, I have to come here more often to shoot more after looks!!)

New Dress A Day - DIY - Vintage black and white dress - Goodwill

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!