New Series: Dress for $5 or Less

Inspired by this girl , I decided to join the world of upcycling clothing. Without belaboring the point, there are several reasons for this inspiration:

1) School has started again and I really do not have time to make dresses from scratch (and have them look good), but I want to keep sewing. It has become a spiritual discipline of sorts.
2) I spent most of my saved library money on textbooks and a new front tire, thus, no money for fabric.
3) It's green. I know we are all sick of that term, but really. Polyester will last for-ev-ver. When I think of all of the fabric in landfills, it makes me sad.

4) I believe in taking those "permanent" items that never sell at thrift stores and garage sales off of people's hands. This first dress is one of those items (the lady at the register looked at me like I was nuts-o when I bought it. Apparently, it had been there for almost a year.)

Dress One: Rosie Gets Riveted

As I took this, I began doubting my
sanity...

I found this lovely frock at a Goodwill near my apartment. I really liked the fabric because it reminded me of a vintage feedsack (that's a good thing). However, the dress' shape also reminded me of a feedsack (not a good thing).

Details

Size 16
Cost: $3.23 (Originally $5.99, but it was half off purple tag day!)
Material: Polyester

Process

First order of business, remove the shoulder pads, sleeves, and side sashes.

Cue "Designing Women" theme

Next, I put the dress on and pinched in the sides and shoulder seams to decide how much to take it in. (about 2 inches in the shoulders and 2.5 inches + seam allowance on each side) I debated restyling the sleeves, but decided to leave it sleeveless and hemmed the armholes to finish.

I then cut about 11 inches off the bottom and hemmed under 1/4 inch.

Show some leg, girl!

I was going to make a retro-inspired collar or cuff out of one of the side sashes, but that didn't work out. Instead, I ironed some interfacing to some of the extra fabric and made some yoyo flowers to give the dress neckline some detail. I finished those off with some funky buttons I got at my local fabric outlet, and... ta daaa!

(These were taken on my phone- my sister absconded with my camera :-P)

From size 16 down to a size 4!

The yoyo details along with my amazing button find!

I loved the detail of the tucks; it pretty much sold
me on buying it!

Total cost: 
$3.23 (Dress) + $0.60 (buttons) =$3.83 :-D