A Rose Without Thorns

As you may recall, I scored not one, but two floral Laura Ashley dresses at the most recent clothes swap back in October. The second needed a few more tweaks than the first, but still not too many. The drop waist and giant buttons down the back were the main things holding this dress back from joining us in the 21st century.

The dolman sleeves were interesting, but the little buttons cinching the hem were uncomfortable and unflattering. So I removed them and snipped off the little buttons loops as close to the sleeve as possible.

Next, I cut the skirt from the top portion and removed the buttons down the back.

I closed up the back by top-stitching the two sides together with the buttonhole side on the bottom, then trimmed the excess fabric from the inside.

The top of the dress was shortened by a few inches to bring the waist up, and then I reattached the skirt.

I tried on the dress with the raised waist and marked where I wanted to skirt hem to hit. After a quick trim and hem, my new dress was finished!

The heavy weight jersey fabric is perfect for the cooler weather, and the red and green in the rose pattern reminds me of Christmas.

Did I mention the dress had pockets? They're a little oddly placed, in the front rather than at the sides, but still, pockets!

And how about them boots, eh? They're Cole Haan, and they have rubber along the feet with leather up the legs. They've come in quite handy for the rainy weather we've had lately. And the price tag? $1. Yup. One. Whole. Dollar. I found them on Yerdle, and I had a free shipping credit, so all I paid was the $1 transaction fee. Crazy awesome, no?