Davids Bridal Bridesmaid Dress Refashion

Last weekend I was in my cousins wedding and it was AWESOME! So beautiful, fun, and lots and lots of laughing :) She had her bridesmaids buy these beautiful mint chiffon dresses from Davids Bridal. They were perfect for her Gatsby theme and gave the bridal party that elegant edge we all needed. But, like most bridesmaids, I wasn't sure when I would wear this dress again and started thinking about how I could modify it to fit my personal, everyday, style a little better. 

I thought about cutting it short, doing the high low hem line, or even just cutting the lining short for a flirty look. But none of those styles changed my biggest issue with the dress. It didn't really fit. Yes it stayed up and that was all I needed it to do, but the sweetheart neck line kept folding over and it was a bit boxy around my waist. So I decided to chop off the top and attach a fun tank for a more casual maxi dress. 

To start I found an awesomely fun tank from Walmart that features a silver snakeskin screen print pattern all over for $3! I then tried on both pieces to see where I wanted to cut the dress and tank.
(You can kinda see in the above picture how boxy the top looked, not bad but not good enough for me to wanna wear it erryday).

Then I pinned the tank to the inside of the dress. Yes I know that usually you do this stuff inside out but I thought I would be able to just cut the top of the dress off and have a fun flirty fringe around the waist of the skirt. I also knew that I needed to keep the zipper intact. The tank was stretchy and could easily be pulled over but the skirt wouldn't fit over my shoulders or my hips with out the zipper. I got hung up on this part for a while but eventually made it through :) 

Once I got it sewed all the way around the waist band I cut the top of the dress off, being sure to leave the zipper. I then turned the dress inside out and cut the tank top leaving just a few inches for safe keeping. Then I sewed the exposed zipper to the tank top and then unzipped the zipper and cut the tank down the center. Making it look like the zipper went all the way up the dress. Sadly my zipper didn't reach the top of my tank so I had to add a hook and eye to close the top. 

TA DA! Thats all I needed to do! I did a bit of finishing around the edges but once the zipper issue was figured out my dress is now something I can wear on the reg! I really really like it and am surprised with my ability to refashion a bridesmaid dress in to something I may actually wear to another event. There are some issues like uneven stitches, uneven cuts, and yeahhh its a little crooked. But for a first time refashion project I think it looks pretty good! And if I need it to look real fancy and not so "handmade" I can just through on a belt and Wah La it looks professional :) 

Here are a few images that show how it fits now.

Do you have any dresses in your closet that need to be refashioned in to something a little more usable? I've got a couple other dresses I may try to play around with, this one has certainly given my confidence a boost :) 

Cotton Ball Bunting

Today I was sitting around trying to figure out how I can make some streamers/bunting for filler at a friends wedding. I was cruising the web and found some really beautiful felt ball buntings. They were all stunning and even had tutorials on how to make your own felt balls. You have to buy a lot of materials. And to be honest, I haven't even changed clothes today so driving 45minutes to the closest craft store wasn't sounding too appealing to me.
Luckily with 3 years as a sculpture student I learned how to use different materials to achieve the same look! Yep I walked around the house and looked for material that was similar in size and shape as the felt balls and came up with cotton balls!

So I got all the cotton balls we had, a spool of thread, needle and scissors.

So first I threaded the needle (duh! don't judge I needed some pictures).

Then I simply pulled the thread through 1 cotton ball at a time and tied a simple knot around it and went on to thread the next cotton ball. 

Simple enough right! 

 I didn't really have a specific distance, I wanted the bunting to be sporadic so I just slid each ball down until I thought it was in a good spot :)

Thought it was pretty sweet looking. I don't have a picture of all if them together like I'm planning to hang in the wedding. But I thought the simple, organic shape of the cotton balls really is precious and can easily add some whimsy to a room. It would be fun to get some colored thread and maybe ribbon to add to the bunting just to give it a little more color. 

Yep, my afternoon consisted of watching crime shows and threading cotton balls :) Now I've just gotta make a run to the store for more cotton balls and I can do it all again!! This may be the cheapest wedding decoration ever! 

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PS I have a giveaway running right now and would love you to come enter! Check it out HERE