Bonus Emerald

This dress was a back-up plan in case my other emerald dress for Refashion Runway didn't pan out (Have you voted yet? The deadline is Friday, October 4.) It looks a bit more blue here, but trust me, it's the same teal-ish emerald as the other dress.

There was a lot of fabric here, but so much of it was eaten up in weird pleats and darts, or stained or holey. It's hard to distinguish stain from pattern, but once you see it, you'll never not see again. And these little dribbles were everywhere on the bodice. Ew.

Ultimately, after the other emerald dress went according to plan, I decided to go for a fairly simple skirt with this one. Since the original dress only had two little buttons and no zipper, and I didn't have a matching zipper in my notions stash, I went with a wrap skirt. So I made a clean chop right below the pockets.

On the bodice, I picked out these weird wing-like pleats to salvage as much fabric as possible.

Then I cut apart the bodice and sleeves into their various pieces and ironed them all nice and smooth.

I cut several rectangles, about 8 inches wide and as long as I could.

Then I joined those rectangles end-to-end.

Turning my attention to the skirt, I cut it straight up the front.

And I hemmed the new front edges.

Then I cut two tiny little nubbins from the scraps.

Each long edge was folded toward the center, then the whole thing was folded in half and sewn down. These will be my button loops.

I folded my long joined rectangles in half and pinned them to the wrong side of the top edge of my skirt to form the waistband.

When I got to the end, I made several loose pleats in the skirt fabric before attaching the waistband.

Once that was stitched together, I pressed my waistband upward.

Then I folded the top edge down to meet the bottom edge and sewed another line of stitches along the waistband. This means my waistband is four layers thick for nice, sturdy foundation.

I inserted a button loop into each end before sewing them closed.

And finally, I hand-sewed on four buttons - two on the inside of the back of the waistband, and two on the outside, near the front.

Having two set of buttons means my new skirt is adjustable. So I can wear it high-waisted...

...or on my hips.

And how's about a close-up of those buttons and pleats, eh?

With the pleats in the front and the double buttons, it almost has a kilt-ish vibe, which I'm totally digging.