Refashion it! Golden Vintage Dress to Embellished Crop Top
Hallöchen, ihr Lieben!
Hope you’re having a great week so far! I’m starting to get a bit stressed by the wedding preparations, especially with things involving the dress. A blog post was long overdue, though, so I’m trying to squeeze this one in between all the fittings and muslins and whatnot.
This is a really quick refashion project I wanted to share with you. It’s a loose-fitting embellished crop top I made from a dress that the Mr’s grandma gave me a little while ago. (scroll further down for before pics!).
It was basically a rectangular, light-weight long dress that looked suspiciously handmade, but had some sort of label in it, so I’m not too sure about that fact. The dress itself had no shape whatsoever, the hem going way below knee-length. At first I thought it might be edgy and cool but when I put it on it simply looked horrible and I felt like wearing a potato sack.
As it so often happens, I forgot to take proper before pictures (which is really stupid when planning an before & after project, I know!), so this is all I have:
The dress was too narrow to give me enough fabric for cutting out a whole new garment, so I decided to take the easy way out and cut the bottom off. Chop, chop!
I overlocked the raw seam and hemmed it by hand using matching gold thread.
The fit was ok-ish, but the top still lacked something. Since it’s a really simple shape, I thought I might add some embellishments to add some bling and make it a bit less boring.
I played around with different embellishments I had at home, like studs and acrylic diamonds.
I liked the studs best and started placing them on the neckline. Once I liked what I saw, I attached them using my pliers. I added more and more until I was happy with the end result.
Since the crop top is very wide, I love wearing it with my pencil skirts. Since they have a high waist, my belly won’t show which makes this look pretty work appropriate. Also, I can wear a tank top underneath during the cold season which is neat.
Personally, I love the tight skirt – loose top combination which is quite flattering as it makes your waist appear smaller than it is!
It’s amazing how such small changes can make a big difference to a garment. Take an hour and an unloved garment and turn it into something you love wearing. Instant happiness!
I would love to hear about your experiences with transforming your old or vintage clothes!
xx
Charlie
Happy sewing!
♥
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Happy Holidays everyone!
Start of by sketching out the shape or letters you want to create. Alternatively, you can use Word or Photoshop to create a layout you can print off and cut out.
I used the sketch to check if the size was right and to mark the position on the shirt.
Because I couldn’t find a good font and sketched my own, I copied them onto squared paper to make sure they were even and all the exact same size. I positioned them on the shirt and used chalk for markings.
When transferring the template onto the foil, make sure everything is mirrored. Draw the shape onto the matt side of the foil, you can use pen or pencil. If you don’t want to mirror your letters, you can try to draw them onto the “right” side, but since it has a protective film it might be a bit tricky and the ink of your pen might come off and ruin your iron.
Cut out the letters, place the onto your shirt and press the iron onto them one by one to prevent them from slipping out of positon. Don’t remove the protective film until all the letters are firmly applied and have cooled off. 
You can now remove the plastic film and use the extra sheet of protective paper that comes with the foil to set the glue a second time. Never iron without the paper after that otherwise the foils sticks to your iron and the whole this is ruined. You can wash the shirt at 60° and iron it from the wrong side if necessary. 
Here’s a view before photos: 
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.
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.
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.
As a soon-to-be-auntie I will have loads of excuses to sew tiny clothes and practise pretend-tea drinking. Ha!
I did it again! I made another version of Kitschy Coo’s Lady Skater Dress! Of course, I couldn’t just stick with the original pattern, but had to make some alterations. I re-used my altered puff-sleeve pattern from my previous
For the skirt and collar I used a light grey jersey I bought on sale half a year ago. The bodice was made out of a thrifted Laury Ashley jersey skirt. Normally, I’m absolutely not into floral fabrics, but I somehow fell in love with this one:
Here you can see that I had to shorten to sleeves a bit, but I could also re-use the hem of the skirt for the sleeve hems. Pretty convenient :)
I taped front and back of the bodice pattern together (folding away the seam allowance) so that they were overlapping a bit on the armhole edge (see below). This way the collar lies flatter.
Drafting the actual collar (don’t forget to add seam allowance!):
I handbasted most of the seams of the collar before machine sewing them. Parts of the collar are cut on the bias and might stretch and shift, so handbasting seemed like a good idea. I also basted the collar to the dress, turned the raw edges over inside and stitched the raw edges to the dress with a zig zag (which you cannot see from the outside as the seams are covered by the collar). 
I love my second Lady Skater Dress as much as I love the first one! I wore it already (way too often) over the holidays and in my head I’m already making more!
