Refashion It! The Thrift Store Dress

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I can’t believe it! After all these years I actually never bought and refashioned a thrift store dress! Normally I just buy oversized shirts or dresses at Primark or H&M, but this time I gave it a try. Since we just moved I walked around the area a little yesterday and found a small thrift store. I figured that with a bit of patience I might find a good-quality fabric for a few pounds and I was right. I found a Berkertex dress, size 16, for only 5 pound. Normally these dresses are really expensive and the fabric was a really lovely light blue Idontreallyknowwhatitis. The tag on the inside says chambray/100% Polyester, but it doesn’t really look like chambray to me. Someone help me please?

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Anyway the fabric is awesome. It dries super quick (basically came out of the washing machine dry) and doesn’t wrinkle at all – no pressing needed!

Yeah, I know. Stop talking and show us the pictures! So here’s what I did!

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

First of all I did some pinning on the dress form. As I’m a size 8-10 I obviously had to take in the sides. The front darts weren’t quite right and a bit too low. I decided to take in the straps and the dart problem was gone!
To give the bodice a bit more shape I took in the front darts a little.

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

After pinning I tried it on and the fit was really good (yay! no changes needed!) Before removing the pins I transferred all changes with a pencil.

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comrefashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Chop, chop!

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here’s the finished bodice!

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Now comes the pinning!

I had no idea what to do with the skirt, so I tried a few things. This version definitely wasn’t working…

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

…it made my hips look twice their size! Meh!

I decided to play safe and simply make a gathered skirt. This looked best with the rest of the dress.

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Pinning and stitching. I used white cotton bias binding to finish the raw edges since the fabric was fraying like f%$§&f!.

I sewed in the rest of the zipper  – and was finished!

It’s super comfy and although I NEVER wore light blue before, I just love it!

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Sorry, blurry selfies today! My other half wasn’t around this time 🙂

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comrefashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I made the belt from white cotton and lace fabric using Tilly’s awesome bow belt tut!

refashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comrefashion sheath dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Unfortunately, this dress doesn’t count regarding the 27 Dresses Challenge – it’s not made from scratch! (Too easy folks!)

Well, but I love it anyway 🙂

In case you’d like to have the chance to see sneak peeks of my project or just want to follow me for fun, just click on the very subtle button below 🙂

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8 thoughts on “Refashion It! The Thrift Store Dress

  1. Fabulous! I have a Betsey Johnson dress I thrifted- it’s too tight & I need to figure out what do with it! I love what you did-I even like the big hip version!

    1. thank you 🙂 Have you thought about inserting strips of fabric at the sides, eg. lace or a contrasting colour? I think that’s the easiest way ti widen a dress without completely altering its shape.

  2. Just goggled refashion blogs and came across your great blog! I’m excited because I recently picked up a similar dress to refashion! Such a cute idea. I may have to borrow it. Mine is red linen though and not likely to wash up and wear so readily… but, that’s o.k.
    Thanks for the great tutorial.

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