It's no secret I love handmade. However, this dress was clearly handmade vintage and definitely needed some work.
The sleeves were the main problem. I took the before photo only a couple days after getting my tattoos and it was pretty uncomfortable to put this dress on. Everything fit fine, except the sleeves. They weren't even in width and even my scrawny arms had a hard time getting into that cuff. They had been hand sewn shut from the outside. Sorta bizarre. I also had to take out the sides next to the sleeves some. They were completely uneven keeping me from moving my arms very much at all.
The fabric was also super stiff.
I had to wash and steam dry (in my fancy pants washer/dryer combo) to break up the stiffness. It came out feeling soft and comfy, but had very slightly shrunk. It didn't change anything about the dress except made the flaws in the sleeves even more apparent.
So I shortened them on an angle and made a new shirt hem to finish.
I think they turned out super cute with the gathers making it puffed.
I shortened it by about 4 inches and used the extra fabric to make a pointed belt.
The pockets are still in kind of a weird place (right there in the front), but still pockets! And, ya know, charm and stuff. (but mostly… it's a dress with pockets!)
This one will be up in the shop also!
Thank you for following my journey. I have a ton of projects coming up, so stay tuned!
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