Pink polyester goes fairytale

Oh what a sad dress I pulled out of my refashion pile. I had been avoiding this one and considered giving it back to Barbara (dress shop owner) telling her it was a lost cause.

From a distance it doesn't look too bad. There's lots of fabric to work with, and pink is my favorite color (I know I'm a 7 year old girl stuck in a 33 year old body.) But trust me.

There were discolorations (these looked like burn marks from an iron?)

And ink. It's hard to tell in the photo but the person who made the dress originally had used a pen to mark the darts and all the seams and the ink bled through everywhere. But I had a plan.

Enter weird experimental dress bodice that emerged from my scrap box.

The skirt portion of the dress was in better condition than the torso but it still showed some stains so I added a layer of this pretty bridal lace. I didn't bother to hem it because it doesn't seem to unravel or fray (I thought about adding bias binding of cream silk - should I have done it?)

I reused the dress zipper - I would have preferred an invisible zipper (mostly because I just learned how to put them in and am exceedingly proud of myself) but this one works fine.

One of my favorite cotton stripes as a lining (I swear I bought a full bolt of this on sale and it's almost gone.)

So in the end I'm pleased with the result and the fact that I put my experiment to use.

I know it's not a style that would appeal to everyone but my inner 7 year old girl (and my real 4 year old girls) love it!

XO

Jackie