Transformation Challenge

I made this top recently by re-using material from a dress which never fit me quite right. I was reluctant to sacrifice the pretty dress but since I no longer enjoyed wearing it I figured there wasn't much to lose.  Fortunately I was able to reuse most of the material including the stretchy empire waist. All was not lost. Actually, I thought it was a pretty neat challenge to transform the dress into a new top and I felt a real sense of accomplishment after it was completed.

Crimson Summer Dress

I did it! I finally managed to motivate myself to alter the red dress that I made last summer in my intermediate sewing class. Last year after I finished the dress I had been very disappointed about it being too big in the  bust and torso. It had taken so much effort to make that I couldn't bring myself to start taking it apart again right away. I wore it once to the office to see if I could get away with not making it any smaller. A co-worker asked me whether I was pregnant which seemed to be a pretty good indication that it wasn't a flattering fit! I decided to shove the dress in the back of my closet to rest there indefinitely.

Well months later I bumped into the same co-worker and she mentioned that in the spring she had found out there were five pregnant women at our workplace but only knew of four. Since we don't have that many women at our engineering firm she naturally thought to ask me since I was recently married. Apparently she never even noticed my dress. Funny. 

Anyway here is the dress now after my alterations and trust me, it looks much much better. I took in the sides and added a ruffle to the neckline by transforming what used to be the tie around the waist. Then at the last minute I decided to add some cap sleeves. Ta-dah! I will definitely wear this dress again now.