Refashion: Winter to Summer Clothes

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While at a blogging event (Apricot Lane) a few weeks back, I scoured the clearance section (as I always do) to see if there were any fun pieces. And I was lucky enough to find long-sleeve midi sheath dresses for $9 each. I bought two; one in charcoal grey the other in an ashy brown. It was obvious these were meant for fall and winter, but I quickly saw how easy it would be to transform those dresses into something a more seasonably versatile.

I haven’t done a thing to the grey one, although I might shorten the sleeves on that one. The ashy brown one fit well, but the color looked terrible on my lifeless pale skin. I dyed it a deep purple, really the perfect color for all seasons. I could pair it with browns for fall, blacks for winter and bright hues for spring and summer. The dye job didn’t turn out as solid as I would’ve liked. I think it might be related to the fact that I didn’t wash the new dress before dyeing. It’s almost uniform like a tie-dye, but it’ll be interesting to see if it will even out with wear.

I shortened the sleeves and in an attempt to bring up the hemline of the dress, I added three pleats across the chest.

The pleats were trickier than it might seem. I had to be very particular with measuring and steaming in order to get all of the seams straight, and I needed a stretchy straight stitch. I found that the stitch with three stitches like this: ||| worked out the best.

This dress is perfect underneath my shear tops. I love that I can wear it plain, under crop tops or shear tops.

Outfit details:

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    1. Allison says:

      Great redo! At $9 each I would’ve bought two as well! Can’t wait to see what you do with the other one.

    2. mandie says:

      So super cute!!! I love that color, too!

    3. David Preston says:

      What a great color. Love the dress with the sheer top. Cute shoes!!

    4. Emily says:

      LOVE the color!!!!!!

    5. Ag says:

      my mother is THE dyeing expert. seriously. I’d let her dye me if that could be possible. but, to the point: whenever she needs to dye some large piece of fabric or garment, she just does it in the washing machine. she lets the machine fill with a little bit of water, stops it, adds the dye (dissolved), and puts whatever needs to be dyed in there. then, she just pushes the “on” button again. I think she uses the normal process of the machine, and of course, she does not put any laundry soap.
      yes, it takes quite a bit of water, but if you do it once in a while when you need it to get something evenly dyed, it’s the best way to go. I hope this little story helped!

    6. phil says:

      how do you do to have such cool ideas ??????????? :-)

    7. ira lee says:

      oh, i love purple! and that looks really pretty under the sheer top!

    8. winnie says:

      i love how you paired the purple dress with the peachy sheer top! great use of layering for two starkly different (and awesome!) outfits.

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