Flip This Dress: Minty Vintage

Happy Monday!


It is cold.  It is rainy.  It is gloomy.  My train was cancelled this morning.

BUT, it is Chinese New Year and I only got a ten emails in my work inbox this morning, so I'm feelin' fine.   And I also was super productive this weekend:

Before:

After:

So clearly I did a total overhaul on this dress.  I just loved the color and texture of it so much.  Mint is totally trending people.  

I removed the sleeves, and cut the dress in half basically, then took out the old crummy zipper.  I added some darts in front, and taking the bottom part of the dress, added a little peplum bottom with some pleats and vents at the sides and back. I had to take in the sides a little bit, and then also had to add a new zipper (which brings me to no zippers in my stock so I will have to venture out in the rain today to replenish - there is nothing worse than being at the end of a project and coming up zipper-less).

The finishing touch was taking in the shoulder width a bit so it didn't cut my arms off in a strange way, and adding black bias tape to trim them.  It came out so super cute, don't you think?  If you are interested, she's over in the Shop...

Out of Order

Chris's job requires him to be in a courtroom from time to time (he's a criminal. jk.), and in my head everything is like an episode of Law and Order, with people screaming, "You're out of order!"  Apparently, it's nothing like this.  Allegedly, it's very boring.  Lame.

So normally for a project, you would sketch before you start making the dress, right?  Meh.  Sometimes I just like to get down to business, and then do the sketch later.  I'm sort of excited for the impending snowstorm this weekend, and plan to do nothing by sew.  So, to take a little break last night, I decided to sketch up Jenna's dress and also start planning what I'm going to do with my vintage finds from last week.

(I loved the way this one came out!)

(avoid drawing feet at all costs)

Vintage Haul

Chris and I went to brunch in Brooklyn yesterday with some great friends, and then hit one of my go-to vintage stores for dress-flipping.  We were on a time crunch (aka: I had to pee and there were no bathrooms.  I blame the mimosas), so it was a quick look through the racks.  I grabbed these three dresses and can't wait to get flipping!

 Another great beaded sack  - I'm thinking of a peplum for this.

  A lovely maroon & white prairie frock:  this is going to make a light and airy sundress or layering piece.  

  My favorite find - its very simple, but its in my new favorite color - mint! NO idea what I'm doing with this, so I'm going to have to give this one a good think. I'm open to your ideas!

Flip This Dress: Cat is Getting a Skirt

So many Cats!  A pal of mine, also named Cat, was gifted this lovely little vintage party dress, but felt she'd get more use out of it as a skirt (a girl after my own heart - I'll be blogging about a similar situation in tomorrow's DIY Thursday post).

After!:

(Before)

This was a fairly simple flip.  I chopped off the top (that's extremely colorful language for just using a pair of scissors to gently cut) about 2 1/2" above the waistline piping.  This was a really pretty detail that we wanted to keep .  I then serged the edge and folded down, stitching right above the piping.  I also swapped out the old zipper since it was old and not functioning as it should. I tacked on a hook above the zipper and ta-da! Skirt.

 

 

(how pretty is this embroidery?)

Cat, hope you love it!

Flip This Dress: Golden Girls Dress Edition

Here is the final product.  I feel as though in a past life, the original design of this dress is something that Blanche Devereaux would wear on a sassy senior date.  The flipped version is something that Cat Munzing may wear to a sassy wedding on sunday.

I really am happy with how it came out.  There was a lot of beading damage, so the most time spent was hand beading the seams and other random places.  I basically chopped the dress in half and played with it on the form until it started looking like something I liked.  I added the little cap sleeve at the end because I didn't want any of the beautiful beadwork going to waste when I was finished.  And who doesn't love a cap sleeve?

Pretty gorgeous beading, right?

Happy New Year!

...so I'm a day late, but there was a lot of pajama-wearing and couch-sitting happening that got in the way of posting.

I'm working on flipping this dress that I found for $10 at L-Train Vintage in Brooklyn:

Here's the work in progress:

And you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the finished product!




Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year...

 

Flip This Dress: Shimmer Addition - done!

If you don't remember the original dress, here it is.

And here is the finished product:

Chrissie, I hope you love it and can't wait to see a pic of you in it (and then blog about it)!

Flip This Dress: Shimmer Edition

Oh hey guys.

I'm flipping a dress today for an old college bud named Chrissie ('old' meaning 'college was a long time ago', not 'old' as in 'adult education student').  She found this amazing vintage dress, but wanted to tailor it to her own taste.  We emailed back and forth for a few days, sending inspiration images, sketches, etc.

Here is the original dress:

And here is the concept for the flip (clearly I can't draw feet or hands to save my life):

 

Can't wait to see how it turns out? I know, the suspense is killing me too.  Check back in soon!

Jewels for Judy

Aunt Judy is one of my mom's best friends.  She's technically not an aunt, but she IS technically like a second mother to me. Her daughter Deirdre happens to be one of my oldest and most dearest pals...and she's getting married!  I haven't seen Aunt Judy's mother-of-the-bride dress, but I've been able to sneak a peak at her jewels for the occasion: Some amazing vintage pieces that belonged to her grandmother.  They needed a few adjustments, and she trusted me to make it happen (no pressure).

First off, the necklace was a little too choker-ish, so we added some length:

The earrings needed to have post-backs and also a little extra bling hangin' off:

I can't wait to see the whole ensemble together!