One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dress refashion. She dyed the dress, then altered it. Great refashions on this blog.

 

About this dress:
Store: Deseret Industries
Price: $6
Brand/Designer: Jessica McClintock
Sizing: My current size

Floral Dress Refashion: Fabric Dyeing

Some of you may remember me posting the before picture of this dress a little while back.  I already didn’t like the original color, but that dislike was amplified when I discovered it had multiple horrid stains.  I immediately tried out the RIT dye I had on hand and decided to go with my orange color because it turned out a pretty golden rod shade over the original pale-minty color.  It also didn’t make the dress look like a bandana the way my red shades did.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Rit dye test swatches for a dress refashion

I lied when I said I immediately tried out my dye first, I actually cropped the dress first for this refashion project so I would have some fabric to test the dye on.  The bottom of the dress had two folds that were sewn as a sort of trim decoration. I used my rotary cutter to cut underneath one of the folds.  That way I didn’t have to create a new hem. #winning

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dress refashion tutorialI also used a seam ripper to remove all of the lace before I proceeded to dye the entire dress.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Steps during a dress refashion

Dyeing can be quite a mess so you really want to be careful.  This is what the dyeing operation looked like for me.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dyeing a dress for a refashionI was amazed and how the lining ended up being neon orange.  I went ahead and removed it, but I’m keeping it because I may make a skirt with it later.One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dress refashion tutorial

 

Floral Dress Refashion: Bodice Sewing

At this point, I removed the bodice using a seam ripper.  It was gathered at the bottom, so the result was a super long piece for a bodice.  Extra fabric would need to be removed.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | yellow seamTo get a hold of the extra fabric, I took in both side seams, and added two bust darts.  I also wanted the bodice to be removable, so I hemmed the bottom of it.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dress refashion tutorial, shows you how she did it.After the steps above were done, I realized that the bodice looked just as good backwards as it did forwards.  The buttons give it a fun real.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Dress refashion tutorial. Tons of them on this blog!

Here it is worn with the original front in place.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Refashion blog with tons of befores and afters

But my favorite might just be the skirt worn alone.

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Refashion blog with tons of ideas

What do you think? What’s your favorite version of this floral dress refashion?

Again to summarize:

One Floral Dress Refashion, Three Results featured by top US sewing blogger, Kara Metta | Awesome refashion blog
Get the golden rod look: