Year old dress, finally done and not actually a dress any more

So, I'm mad busy with this project. I thought it would really cut stress out of my life if I finally started clearing some of the mass amounts of stuff I have in my apartment. Of course, that sort of thing can be stressful as hell. Here's a horrifying picture:

Notice I didn't say "this is what it looked like before"? That's the mess I created while trying to move things out of a different room. At that point, I took a look at my living room and said, "I need a break."
So, this process of de-hoarding is not a one day thing. Baby steps, people. The hardest part is going to be parting with my knick knacks. How am I going to look at a pile of cute owls (many that I painted myself) and decide who stays and goes?
Moving on, I want to share one of my fun refashions. Although I haven't been posting, I've been sewing all summer. I have many things to show, so little time to blog. So here's one that I just finished after starting it last summer. One year ago...

This is one of those "before" pics where the item doesn't look that terrible and should be easy to fix. This picture just doesn't accurately portray how large and wide the top half was.

As you see here, I have a lovely example of the 80s does 40s look which is basically a garment made in the 1980s with a 1940s style. The green and black rose print is awesome.
I like a little 40s style, but I had to do something about that 80s rule which said all top halves of dresses should be roughly the size of a tent. It was summer at the time, and I was a little inspired by these things called "playsuits" that I saw in Etsy. Like these shown on this old pattern:

Cute, right? Except what I ended up with looks nothing like that. I do that a lot. The reason I actually had that idea to make it a two-piece was because I knew I would have to take apart the top of the dress to make it smaller, thus detaching it from the skirt part. It's so hard reconnecting them.
Last summer I guess I did some work, before tossing it aside:

 There's the top with the huge-ass sleeves removed. What you can't tell from this picture is the cool thing I did. It was originally kind of a wrap style. I took it apart and kind of sewed it in the middle...can't explain, but it looks nice, k?
The skirt part...ugh. I recall that I somehow sewed down the raw edges of the shirred waistline. It's elasticized so that should hold it up.

Nope. Technically, the skirt stayed up, but not high on the waist, like I do and I just prefer a good strong elastic. I had an idea.

I sewed a think strip of elastic to the inside of the waist band. It actually worked. Also the skirt had these weird vents at the bottom that I didn't like.

See? I sewed those up.
Of course, the damn top was giving me a problem, now. Since it's a pull over, it has to be big enough to pull over my head and shoulders (no stretch to this fabric) but even after I took it in from the front it was still huge. A back elastic that I tried failed so I employed this sash thing:

See? I sewed that sash to the back of the top, so that I could tie it tighter after putting it on.

I definitely should not have double knotted it like that. Live and learn. This post has been a little more comprehensive than is necessary. Let's just see the big finish.

Ta da, Oh yeah, I couldn't resist adding a belt. It just looked unusual without it, like I needed to break up all that green.

I like it. Can't wait to wear it outdoors somewhere. By the way, I just finished fixing up an old style bathing suit. I'll share that next. On a hanger or something.