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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Clothing Makeover: Altering a Pink Bodyline Dress for Easter

Normally, around Easter I work myself haggard trying to design and sew a lovely, ruffly new dress to wear on Easter Sunday.

This year, I decided instead to work myself haggard trying to alter a dress that needed work.

The before photo for the slightly ugly pink Bodyline dress

Here is the old dress that badly needed a makeover.  I got it in a lucky pack I bought from Bodyline.  The price was really cheap, but I’m not sure how “lucky” I was with this one.

The before photo for the slightly ugly pink Bodyline dress.  Close up of the collar with discoloration.

You can see here that the collar had odd stains on it, but that’s okay because I immediately thought it had to go anyway.  The lace looked kind of cheap and the collar overall was unflattering.

In addition to the collar, the elastic on the one of the sleeves was shot, the lace on the sleeves was horrible, the hearts down the front of the dress were overkill, and surprisingly I thought it could stand to have a little less lace and ruffles.

So after some time with a seam ripper and sewing machine…

The after photo of the madeover and improved pink dress, so much cuter now.

…Here’s the new dress.

Close up of the new neckline.

I chopped off that horrible collar and added a touch of lace to the new neckline.  You can see that it’s the lace from one of the hearts on the bodice.  It helps to tie in the whole dress.

Close up of the new dress bodice and neckline.

Obviously, I removed two of the hearts from the front of the bodice.  One is plenty, plus I can probably make something cute with the other two later.  I also removed two of the vertical strands of lace.

Close up of the new dress hemline with underskirt ruffle.

I removed one of the bottom ruffles, then realized the skirt was too short without it.  Oops. 

So I made a white underskirt to replace it.  It’s better this way, and I can wear the underskirt separately.

Close up of the puffed sleeves with new lace.

And finally, I replaced the elastic on the sleeves and switched the bad lace with the lace I ripped off the bodice.  The sleeves look much cuter now.

The new matching flower headband.

And just for fun, I whipped up a cute flower headband to go along with my new dress.  I think flower accessories are perfect for Easter, which is why I'm going to make a tutorial for the headband.

Here’s the updated list:

  • Dress makeover
  • Doll undies
  • Cameo and Hearts
  • Blouse makeover
  • Phone case
  • Outfit
  • Mother’s Day
  • Costume fix
  • Jammies
  • Bonnet

One down, nine more to go.  The next project should be up in a few more days, but the head band tutorial will be up tomorrow!  Look forward to it.

3 comments:

  1. I love your dress and, as a fellow sewer, admire you for making it over. Did you end up wearing it today for Easter? Would love to see a photo! Happy Easter! ~Cheryl

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  2. It's a lovely dress, I'm glad you managed to alter it successfully. Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great repurposing - I wouldn't know where to begin! Thanks for sharing with Party in Your PJs!

    ReplyDelete

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