Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Thrift Store Dress Makeover

The other day, I finally got the chance to visit a thrift store downtown called Black Market. I had been wanting to go for a while so since I was in the area visiting a friend, I jumped on the opportunity to pop in. By the time I got there, I had only about 30 minutes before the store closed. I knew I would have to endure the eye rolls and piercing stares from the staff because I waltzed in so late. In my defense, they close at 7 which is earlier than I expected. Also, I was really quick and I actually bought 2 of the items that I tried on. And I was out right when it was closing time.

One of the things I picked up was this ridiculous plaid dress. It's kind of like a house dress you would expect your grandma to wear. I had the perfect makeover in mind so I bought it!

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Before & After
My inspiration was a plaid dress that I saw a girl wearing at the CNE during the summer. It looked like a high-low hem but I am pretty sure that she was wearing this dress from Forever 21.  It was super cute in person. My made over dress is basically nothing like this one from Forever 21 but I guess you could say it was my jumping off point.


Forever 21 Plaid Button-Down Midi Dress
Forever 21 Plaid Button-Down Midi Dress
So, here's what I started with.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Plaid housedress dying for a makeover.

To start, I put the dress on and started pinning were I wanted to take it in. I drew out a little road map below of how I marked it out. The little x's are the major points where I pinned it while wearing it. I had to pull some serious acrobatics to get the pins under my arms. I definitely pulled some muscles doing that. Once those major points were pinned I slipped the dress off and carefully turned it inside out making sure to keep all the pins in.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Where I pinned.

When it was turned inside out, you could really see the shape starting to take place.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
It's coming together.

I had to improvise at this point because I am not a seamstress. I don't know what the proper way to do this is, but I just took some tailor's chalk and rubbed it along all the edges that were pinned.  By doing this, I marked the seams the inside of the dress on both the front and back.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Chalk on the seams.

Once that was done at each point I pinned, I pulled them all out. Then, I laid the dress flat and drew out the outline with chalk.  I used the points that you can see above as guide lines and freehanded the rest. Because of how wide the pockets were, I had to draw it a little more 'hippy' than I actually am. I could have removed the pockets then re-positioned them so I could get a perfect fit but I wanted to keep this as easy as possible.  

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Chalk guideline for stitching.

After the outline was drawn to my satisfaction, I started pinning the front and back together using the chalk as my guideline. You should do this so that when you start stitching with the sewing machine, the front and back remain aligned to your satisfaction. Using the sewing machine, I just stitched along the chalk line, being very careful to remove the pins along the way. I tried it on again and to my surprise, it was looking pretty good. I'm not sure why I was surprised because I was pretty confident about the method I was using but sometimes you just worry that things won't turn out properly.
Thrift Store Dress Makeover
It fits!

It was kind of tight when I tried it on, but that was because of the extra fabric along the interior stitching. I trimmed off the excess fabric from the inside and tried it on again. It felt way more comfortable but it was very 'hippy'. I took it off and free handed another line in chalk along the hippy part, then stitched again. It wasn't perfect but I was not about to remove the pockets to reattach them.
Thrift Store Dress Makeover
It's a little 'hippy' but it's fine.
Now for the high low hem. I guess I could have stopped here because I thought the dress was looking pretty cute. I also have a thing for midi dresses; it's more of a problem. I just love them. Especially a bodycon midi, but I digress. I decided to keep on going with my original plan. I pulled up a tutorial on how to sew a high low hem that I pinned on Pinterest ages ago. You can find that tutorial here. My fabric was not as flowy, so I didn't expect it to turn out exactly the same. I'm sure I could have figured this out myself but it always helps to save time when someone else tries it out for you.

I flattened out the dress and drew the hemline in chalk. As you can see below, I redrew the line more conservatively just in case I needed more room to work with.
Thrift Store Dress Makeover
High low hem guideline.
I cut along the line and tried the dress on again. It is so annoying to try it on so many times but it is absolutely necessary.  At least it is for me. I am no professional. I just like to think I am.

You can see here that it ended up coming out pretty square shaped in the back which wasn't the look I was going for. At this point I realized that I had to cut off the original hem in the back because the high low hem does not hide the stitching on the inside of the back of the skirt. Does that make sense? Hopefully it does. Trimming the original hem off would make it shorter than I wanted but it needed to be done.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Hemline trial. A little too square.

I laid it flat then freehanded the rounded corners with chalk.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Working on that hemline.

I trimmed the hem again, tried it on and decided that I liked it. I ironed the bottom of the dress on the steam setting so the edge of the fabric got stiff enough for me to work with. I folded the edges over just enough so I would have enough space to stitch the hem.  This part was a little tedious because I wanted the seam width to be consistent along the full edge and I wasn't measuring. As I went along, I pinned the hem down. I used about one million pins; that was fun. Once pinned, I steamed the fabric again. I ran the iron right over the pins. I don't know if this is the right way, but it's what I did and it worked for me.
Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Steaming that hem.

Look at that beautifully steamed edge. Well, the bottom part was perfectly steamed.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Beautifully steamed hemline.

After steaming, the fold became fairly stiff, so I was able to remove all of the pins then fold it over one more time. I pinned the second fold and steamed again. Tedious yes, but worthwhile.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
The second fold.

The last step was to hand sew the hem. I wanted to make sure it looked neat and minimal from both the inside and the outside. My sewing machine had been acting up and I have absolutely no knowledge on how to fix these issues. I really didn't have the patience to waste time trying to figure it out then still have my hem all messed up. It was also really late and I didn't want to disturb my neighbours. That's the fun part about living in an apartment building. Here's a lucky shot on the perfect little neat hem I was hand sewing. The rest of it did not look this good.


Thrift Store Dress Makeover
Hand stitching the hem.

The hand stitching took a while, I can't even pretend that it was a quick process but after that, I was done! I was really happy with how it turned out. In fact, I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
The final product.

You can see that the fabric is actually quite sheer so I am wearing a slip underneath. These poses are really embarrassing but it's all I have so don't judge. I thought it was a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.

Thrift Store Dress Makeover
A few more embarrassing shots of the final product.

I really, really like how this turned out. It wasn't exactly what I was envisioning for my plaid dress, but it hit the spot and for just few dollars. I like that it's more on the casual side so I can wear it to a bunch of different places. I wore it the same weekend that I made it haha. Isn't it funny how sometimes projects are actually better when they don't turn out exactly how you planned it? Sometimes.

 Thrift Store Dress Makeover

Thanks for stopping by!!

Sarah

2 comments:

  1. Love it! I love cutting things up to make the look that I envision in my head. It's a serious problem because 50 percent of the clothes in my closet are cut hahaha. :)

    - MeYouandHayleyLarue.com

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Hayley! Haha, I don't consider that a problem at all ;)

      Sarah

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