Busy Plaid Dress

This dress has a lot going on, and I don't know what I was thinking when I forked out $6 for it last week.  There didn't seem like there was much potential here -  I didn't like the fabric all that much, and the neck line is well... not great.

And look at this weird ruffly bit.

But then I remembered when I looked at it in the mirror at Vinnies, I had held it up back to front.  So I popped it on backwards, and was reminded that this neckline was what had appealed to me.

So I set to work turning what was the old front of the dress into the new back of the dress. 

I had an open back in mind, so I chopped out a heap of material.

And tidied up all the edges so it looked like this.

But when I tried it on, the open back didn't sit well at all, so I decided to close in the back by adding a big 'patch'.

To do this I needed some fabric to make a patch with, so I chopped a heap of fabric off the bottom of the dress, as I intended to shorten it anyway.

I sewed the 'patch' in place to close in the open back.

Then to make it fit properly I took about 2 inches off one side of the dress (the other side had a zip I wanted to keep).  And I also added darts to each side of the now front of the dress so it would fit properly.

I chopped off those awful ruffly bits, and then hemmed it.

Given that I didn't like the fabric all that much, this dress turned out better than I had expected.   

Its got a kitsch-iness about it that I actually quite like.  I would have liked to have teamed it with white shoes and some white 50's style sunnies, but I don't have either, so these glasses and shoes had to do. 

Its even quite comfy, given that the top half of it is quite tailored in its fit.

 

I teamed it with this vintage necklace that once belonged to my husbands great aunt.  

Hangin' with my pooch before heading out for the day.

So the cost. Dress: second-hand $6, Vintage necklace: $0, White Shell Bracelet: I think this belonged to my sister in the 80's, so I'd have to say $0 on this one, Shoes: I can't remember the cost of these ones.

I've recently set up a Rustic Refashion Facebook page, so please pop on over and 'like' it, you can do this by clicking the link on the top right of this page, or just look up Rustic Refashion on FB.  I'll be popping other bits and pieces on the FB page that won't always be included in the blog posts.