Refashion: Black and Gold Dress Fix

I promised myself I would finish all the dress refashion projects (that I started and abandoned) now that I have a sewing machine. I may have gotten spooked because I don't know how to attach the needle, which looks kinda small anyway. I need an adult.
Still, I finished up this New Year's party dress (which I didn't wear because it's so cold). This is what I started with:

I got it at Goodwill, and asked them for a deal, due to obvious need for repair. ($2.00!) The shape and style of it were retro-tastic, but the material was kinda cheesy. As you can see, it looks like it's previous owner tried to grate it. I started by taking off that nasty bow and the broken buttons.

It's a shame because I love bows, but that thing was like all ripped and faded. Look, the seam has some sort of lining. The one thing in good shape would have to get cut off. I liked the idea of having buttons, so I needed to replace those. Finally, a chance to get into my big-ass button collection.

Ooh, perfect! Those old-timey buttons look like they came off some fancy lady's jacket in the 50s or something. They're like a brushed gold, if you can't tell. But, oh no! I only have three of them, and I removed four; one on top, one on bottom, and one on each sleeve. I guess the bottom of the dress will go decorative button-less
Because of the dress's horizontal stripes, I figured I'd skip a valuable step of measuring and marking how much of the bottom I wanted to cut off. That's how I roll; measure nothing, cut as many times as needed. I just eyeballed it, and used one of the gold thread stripes as a guide. Holy shit, it actually worked. I pinned it up and moved on to the hard part.

The hole in the dress was going to be a bitch to deal with. I thought about attaching a ribbon around the dress like a stripe, but I didn't have enough of it. So, I just snipped a little piece off the part that I just removed from the hem. I pinned the little scrap underneath the hole, so that it was like a patch, but from behind. I used my needle and thread to carefully hand stitch it in place.
I was pretty much done! Except the bottom that was still pinned, waiting to be sewn. As I ironed the hem down flat, I figured it would be easy enough to do a quick hand sew. The material is lightweight and kinda rough. I could probably get away with a just a few, quick stitches.

I'm Fancy

For my last post, I wrote about the possibility of attending the festivities held by the wrestling company I spent many years working with before leaving on not so good terms about a year ago. WAW, once the source of my greatest pride and joy became a painful memory when I walked out of that ring last December. After spiraling down the rabbit hole of crazy last year; was I ready to face some old demons?

Yes. I probably should've stayed away, but I stubbornly ignored that voice in my head and walked across that burning bridge into the WAW Fifteenth Anniversary Awards Ceremony. In my gut-spilling four part story, my falling out with my former "family" of WAW was just a footnote. Let's just say that I'm guessing a few rage faces were made when I walked in the door. How did I do it? I had a date.

The gentleman alongside me is one half of the current WAW Team Champions. When he invited me to attend as his date, I warned him that he might regret it if he got any backlash. I asked him to keep my attendance a secret until he walked in the door with the allegedly "disgraced" former Queen of WAW. I had one of those scenes in my head where people gasped and dropped their drinks like "Oh my! I'm so appalled!"  at the sight of me. That obviously did not happen because I guess that stuff only happens in movies or whatever.

Look Your Best; Expect the Worst

I heard a saying once, and I can't track it down nor remember where I heard/read it. Anyway, it went something like: "Don't leave the house without looking like you might bump into your worst enemy." This one time, I was leaving my parents' home and my sister asked me why I applied lipstick if I was just heading home. I repeated that phrase, adding, "in my case; there's a very good chance of that happening."
Anyway, I don't remember buying this t-shirt,but I'm pretty sure it was during the summer before last, and at Savers. It features a woman in some sort of gas mask with an atomic warning symbol and the phrase, "Look your best when expecting the worst."

Of course, the ironic thing about these pictures is that I don't look all that hot at all.I got the idea at night, and by then, I was tired and showing it when I snapped these pics. I paired the top with one of my fave vintage, pleated, print skirts and red shoes. Then...I filtered the hell outta these shots to make them look decent. I also wanted to give them an old-timey, nostalgic feel.

Refashion Co-op: $0.50 Dress

Here's a link to Refashion Co-op, a blog I started contributing to last month. Just another challenging dress to make wearable that I took on in a half-assed way. Check it.

Refashion Co-op: Spring Dress in Fall

Cross Post? $.50 Dress Refashion

I just joined another blog. It's called Refashion Co-op, and I guess you just ask to join and they let you! Here's my first post over there: Teacher's Dress into...Still a Teacher's Dress

I guess that's not really a teaser, I just gave away the ending. Sorry for the spoiler.