New Years Eve Project

Happy New Year Readers!

Original dress

So every year I go out shopping for the perfect NYE dress, and it takes forever and costs me a fortune, not the best way to start off the new year.  The greatest idea ever came to me while shopping at a thrift store in Austin, Buffalo Exchange.  I found a dress for $12, that for some reason was calling to me, "Make me beautiful Jess!" I snatched it up and began sketching some ideas out. 

While at the park with the dogs and Moose, sat with my pencil and Michael Jackson notebook, my favorite notebook that I put all my ideas.  I liked the choker style neck, so that was definitively staying, but the long skirt had to go.  I also wanted to add more flare to it, I usually like simple and use my accessories to jazz it up, but I wanted something else this time.

Sketch of NYE dress

I wanted to cut the back leaving a slit all the way down to the skirt and the front as well. I have also been on a flower kick, and everything with flowers seems to be beautiful to me.  I also did not want just any straight seem skirt so I wanted to have some pickups at the bottom.  I had the idea of lace or tulle on the skirt to add a little something extra, but I wasn't sure.  Later on I went to the fabric store, my favorite store ever JoAnn's.  I found the perfect lace to cover the skirt. I bought felt for my flowers, and black shiny buttons for the flowers and extra just in case I should be inspired to put them somewhere else.

Back of dress with added fabric

I only had a day in a half to produce a dress suitable for NYE in downtown Austin. First thing was to cut the skirt to the length I wanted it, just above my knee.  After I tried it on the skirt fit me kind of tight like a pencil skirt would and I really wanted it to be kind of loose "free flowing" if you will.  That was my first hurdle to get over.  Making the skirt about 6 inches wider was harder then I thought. Using the extra fabric left from shortening the dress, I added it to the skirt. I wasn't too concerned about the seams showing since I was going to add the lace over it. 

Added a slit in the back

After sewing in the extra fabric I made a hem at the bottom. Only about an inch thick.  Now it was time to sew on the lace.  That was also a hard and time consuming part of making this dress.  I had to hand sew it verses using my machine, because the fabric was too delicate. I also wanted the back to have a wow factor so I cut the back all the way down to the skirt.

Felt flowers

Now it was time to add the flowers to the top. I originally planned on cutting a slit in the front too but decided to 86 that idea and leave it.  I made the four flowers out of felt and all different sizes.  This part was the easiest to do.  My dress was finally complete and ready for me to wear!  I wore it with black tights and black ankle boots, it came out just the way I wanted it to.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year! Jess out.

NYE Dress

Close up of NYE Dress