More of the same: bird embellishments dress

This refashion is a lot like the last one I shared, only way easier. I pretty much just fixed the sleeves and added dun things. Oh, but here's a fun feature: It's all temporary and can be changed again. Because I hate to commit.
It's so much like the tan shirt dress that I'm even wearing the same belt. Out of all the damn belts that I've acquired, I must really like this one. Anyway; the black dress before:

That's my awkward limbo pose, where I lean back with my hips out. It makes me look legless. This might be after I fixed the little sleeves.

That's nice, clear pic of the neckline in back. A tag that's all smooshed into elastic. I think this dress has already been refashioned by whomever donated it to Savers. I'm refashioning a refashion.

It's hard to tell, but the sleeve is all puckered and frayed. So, I sewed that. Oh, and long story incoming...I actually made this one about a month ago. As you see, the dress was missing one button at the middle. I took the button from the top and replaced it, thinking maybe I'd put a different one up there. I decided against it and went to grab a medium, round button. I didn't have one. The next day, I stopped at the fabric store near work and grabbed a medium, round, black button, even though I didn't have the dress with me to compare.
I got home and got ready to attach; not a good match. It's a pretty damn basic item, I don't know how I was so off. Annoyed, I went and exchanged the $0.99 item the next day, with the dress in hand. I also grabbed some big-ass green colored beauties for decoration. What a completely unnecessary pain in the ass. Because, just a couple days later, I was gifted with an incredible button stash and will never have to buy one again.
Wow, that story took up space. As you might be able to tell from the before picture, this dress has a cute little middle area and that long, midi-length I'm so fond of. I envisioned a fun, pin up style dress, only one that was comfortable and appropriate for school. I was insistent that I needed bird appliques along the neckline. Some inspirations...

find sources

That last one is anchors, but you get the point. I love the image of the swallow-in-flight-tattoo-style bird. It's actually kinda cliche, but I'm ok with that. Yup, the bird print is a favorite of mine and one I'll surely revisit again. What I needed for this dress was a couple of iron on birds, like these:

find sources

You know, something one can easily find on Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, everywhere, etc. But, I didn't have any of those. I'm really trying to use the vast amount of materials that I do have, rather than wastefully purchasing things that I think I need. If you use old scraps, it's like you spent nothing. Here's what I did...
1. Google "how to draw a swallow."
2. Carefully draw a swallow (because I don't have a printer) and then cut out drawing from paper.
3. Trace cut out image onto thick, turquoise fabric.

Not bad, huh? Oh, and make two of them, facing in the opposite direction. I used Fray Check around him, I don't care if he's all stiff. Actually, I thought to myself....maybe he should be more 3 dimensional. I used fabric glue and attached the birds to a piece of matching felt and cut around.
Before attaching the birds, I thought of other ways I could add some crap to this piece. Yeah, don't just "put a bird on it", put two birds! And those big ass buttons!
Instead of sewing them on, I wanted to make them interchangeable.

Ta da. Button, glue, felt, more glue, pin back. See what I did there? I made big button pins. Also, I decided to use a different color, I don't need all that turquoise. After pinning my buttons to the dress's pockets, I went ahead and hand-stitched my birds to my dress. Then, I put that same old striped, elastic belt on. And it was cute.

How about a bunch more pics to crowd the internets? K.

So, basically...the birds can come right off should I decide to get some appliques; the belt ain't attached, and the green buttons are like brooches. I can change this thing up, if I'm feeling the urge.

Look how much taller I appear when I'm in heels and not slouching (actual height-5").