School Formal to Rock Star!

Welcome to my first Revamped Fashion D.I.Y. Online session! This is a segment I will be featuring weekly, to help get you in the Revamping groove even if you can't make it to one of my workshops.

This week's example of Revamped Fashion is a simple and effective method I've used to breathe life into a much loved high school formal dress.

Before - in its original form.

My client brought this dress to me because she loved the colour and hoped I could somehow make it cool again. Now, my client happens to be one super hot babe who gets on stage and sings like an angel and plays guitar like Slash, so it was quite appropriate for me to transform this dress into a hot little number, worthy of being put on public display!

I decided that because the top of this dress was still very current (it has fabulous cut-outs), it would be a crime not to use it, so to modernize this wonder I simply chopped off the skirt! I left enough of the skirt (approximately 3cm) attached to the top, to double fold under to create a neat and tidy edge, and I hand stitched this fold in place into the lining.

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Front view of Revamped top.

Back view of top, with new rouleau loops and lace-up back.

Because my client is no longer 16, the back of the top didn't quite meet (I would say a fabulous growth spirt of cleavage would be to blame for that!), so I removed the previously placed buttons and replaced them with some rouleau* loops I had made from the remainder of the skirt.

Now the top has a new lace-up back!

*To create rouleau for the loops and the lace-up cord, cut a 3cm wide strip of fabric on the bias, fold in half and stitch. Because this fabric is stretchy its ideal to use a short stitch which has a very slight zig-zag. Use a rouleau turner to turn the cord in the right way.

This is what a rouleau loop turner looks like.