Goodwill Refashion: Black Sweater Dress

Since Aaron was skiing this afternoon, I decided to take advantage of a quiet afternoon to myself and refashion the other dress I got from Goodwill about a week ago. 

BEFORE

What I loved: I liked the material on this dress. It is a sweater like material but not too thick. Plus, it has a nice drape. The other upside to this dress is it is HUGE. Yep, big is good for refashioning--there is plenty of material to work with that way. And you can't beat the $3.50 price tag. 

What I hated: Pretty much everything about the shape. Let's face it: this dress is a big, black rectangle. Who would look good in this dress in this condition? No one! 

Here is how I transformed this "blah" black dress: 

 I laid a dress on top with the length that I liked and cut the dress to a new length

 I wanted 3/4 length sleeves so I laid a shirt over the dress to give me an idea of where to cut

 I also wanted to cut a new neckline: I pinned this neckline of the sample shirt to the dress. 

 Then I lifted the shirt and drew around the pin-line with chalk

 Ta-da! a pattern to cut from!

 I needed to tighten up the sleeves and sides of the dress. I measured 1 1/4 inch with my seam gage around the sleeves and about 2 inches around the body of the dress

 After sewing my new seams, (and trying on the dress to make sure it was ok) I cut off the excess. 

 Next I sewed double hems for the sleeves and hem. I think the double hem looks a little more professional.

 I wanted to sew a cowl neck on the dress. I measured the neckline of the dress (29inches) and used the material I cut off the bottom  for the cowl neck. I made it 8 inches wide (but I probably could have gone wider)

 I stuck the collar into the dress, then pinned and sewed

 After sewing and pulled out

 Then I folded the cowl over and sewed it down. After this, I sewed a belt from the rest of the skirt I cut off. No pic of this, sorry. 

AFTER

 So, I completely stink at taking pictures of myself. Here is my best shot of the "after."

 I love it!! New shorter hemline, modern sleeve length, and fun cowl neck. The belt is tied at my natural waistline (not really visible in this picture).

 New neckline! (So much better than the mock turtleneck of the original!)

I love how it turned out and I can't wait to wear this to work next week!