Refashion it! The Porcelain Dress

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’
‘Oh, you can’t help that, we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

I’m all ready for the tea party, just couldn’t find the rabbit-hole yet. In the meantime I had many cups of pretend-tea while my sister was snapping pictures of me and my newly refashioned porcelain dress.

I refashioned this dress the night before I flew back home over the Easter holidays so I had something to wear for our big Easter sunday family brunch (because there was nothing in my closet. Seriously.)

Here’s a before pic of the dress. I bought it at TRAID, my favourite charity thrift store, for just a few pounds.

It was a size 20 Dorothy Perkins dress I absolutely fell in love with because of the fabric. Although it’s polyester is has a very soft and silky feel to it and the print is just fabulous. I don’t know if you guys know onion pattern porcelain, this is basically what I grew up with.

It’s the sort of china my grandparents had (and still use) and if I remember correctly my parents also have similar china at home. I just love the pattern and this fabric reminded me so much of it (and happy lunches at my grandparent’s place).

I threw the dress on my dressform, inside out. Pinning the lining out of the way I took in the sides of the dress, which actually took a bit longer than it sounds. Pinning, trying it on, repeat. Until I was satisfied with the fit. The tricky bit was the fact that there is just a very short zip in the back. I couldn’t take it in too much at the waist as it still had to fit over my shoulders and bust.

After pinning comes the fun part: chop, chop!

I used the chopped-off bits of the blue fabric as a template for trimming the lining. I finished the raw edges of both fabric and lining side seams and then created two darts in the back add more shape.

 

 

I also created to tucked pleats in the front, which I just quickly sewed down with a few hand stitches. The fabric was very delicate and I didn’t want to accidentally ruin the whole dress with machine sewing them down.

The dress now fits very nicely, but I still prefer to wear it with a little blue belt. It breaks it up nicely and cinches it in a bit more at the waist.

(The pictures where taken in my parent’s beautiful garden. Ahh – I miss it so much now that the only green bits I see here in London on a daily basis are from the hedge in front of our flat, yes, the one you’re all familar with!)

My Dad caught me knitting on a sunny 25°C Easter sunday. Well, I couldn’t fit my sewing machine into my suitcase. Ryanair, meh. Here’s a sneak peek of the tiny cardigan I was knitting for my mom-to-be sister-in-law.As a soon-to-be-auntie I will have loads of excuses to sew tiny clothes and practise pretend-tea drinking. Ha!

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Happy sewing!
♥

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