Dress for MEEEE! (well, just an alteration, really.)

Lately I have been going through my closet looking for things I don't wear anymore that I can refashion into fun stuff for the kiddos.  HowEVER, I had some fun events to go to this year, and rather than chopping up some of my favorite old dresses that didn't quite fit right anymore or had out-of-date hemlines, I did some altering so that I could keep on using them.  I shortened one dress, took in the waistband on a couple, and shortened the straps on another, and then there was this one.  This one is my favorite, because in addition to solving a problem that kept me from wearing this dress (it was TOOOO short; I can't believe I wore it this way a couple of summers ago when it was new!), this alteration gives the dress a whole new look.  And I got to use up some extra scraps to do it, so I feel like I got a brand new dress for free.

Picture taken assuming I would crop out my head, however that looked weird.

Below is the SIL on our trip to NYC, pictured in front of the HUGE HEAD of my friend Louis, who we saw performing the role of Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine in the amazing Next to Normal. We actually went shopping together before this trip and BOTH bought this red dress, and of course, there are no pictures of me in it.  We resisted the temptation to wear it on the same day.

I'm about 4 inches taller than her--I can't believe she let me buy AND wear a dress this short!

This dress is made from a thin cotton.  The fabric is actually see through, but it has an extra layer underneath so you're not exposed.  All I did was measure the hem across the front of the dress, then cut out two rectangular pieces of fabric that were 4 inches tall and 27 inches wide (the hem measurement that I took).  I ironed them in half lengthwise, then pinned them to the inside of the dress, just at the hemline.  Since the trim fabric was dark and the dress fabric is somewhat sheer, I didn't want it to show through so I kept the new fabric hidden right behind the doubled-up fabric of the hem.  I sewed two lines--one right on the original hem seam, and another right where the bottom of the original dress met the added fabric.  I then topstitched a line about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the new trim, just to give it a finished look.

I thought it would be fun to tie in the new fabric by incorporating it at the waistline as well.  The dress had a detail at the waist already, so I just mimicked the shape in a new piece of fabric (just cut it a little bigger) then ironed all of the edges under and topstitched it directly to the dress.

Voila!  I don't have to be afraid to bend down!

Yay! Now if it only had pockets, it would be perfect. I go a little crazy for a dress with pockets. I just hope the weather stays warm long enough for me to wear this!