Crafty Cousins: Lady In Red….

I actually don’t like that song at all, but that is what comes to mind.

How was your Valentine’s Day? Did you do anything fun? My mom & I got Applebee’s to go and I had an amazing sirloin. This one, if you’re interested…The hubsters got home from work around 7:30, so we did the bedtimes for kiddos, then watched my idea of a chick flick…Wanted, with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie that I had recorded on DVR (yeah for having satellite with a movie channel that edits movies I want to see!!). Good times. High body count. Anyway, moving on to something that may say Valentine’s more to others Smile

I bought this dress about 4 years ago, on major clearance, in the wrong size, and wasn’t completely in love with it, but wanted a red dress. So I bought it, and wore it once. That’s it. Kind of ridiculous. So I tried it on again recently and decided everything that I didn’t like about it.

I wasn’t a fan of the ruffles on the neck band.

I didn’t like how it bunched on the waist in the front and back, making it look like you have a pooch/big booty even if you don’t (I do, just sayin.)

Then I let it sit for awhile while I tried to get inspired elsewhere. I found this Pinterest board from Shabby Apple of all red dresses. Ooh baby! I really liked the look of this one

From Shabby Apple, and this one

Seriously looked at dozens of pictures, before deciding how I wanted to go about it. I spent the next few TV watching evenings unpicking the ruffle from the neck and pinning the band back on

Then sewing it on

I like it better already! Next (sorry not many pictures, I kept forgetting…) I unpicked the waist front and back to make it lay flatter instead of bunched. For the back, there was already a middle seam, so I just undid the center bunch, and re-sewed the middle seam, taking in the gathering and tapering the fullness. Did I lose you?

Okay the solid lines are the lines I sewed on the back, and you can see there was a bit extra fabric hanging out on the inside, and I tapered it down to fit the dress where it looked natural. Does that make sense?

I did the same in the front, but I had to unpick the whole thing and take the extra out at the side seams. Then, I decided to cut off some of the extra fabric, and get a look at the waist that still helps camouflage any pooches, while still looking awesome. I layered the cut pieces, and since they were tapered, they are kind of triangle shaped. I sewed that in with the side seams and the waist band.

I took in the sides of the dress, since it was a few sizes too big. This was another dress I ruched in the past, so I’ll show you these pictures to clarify things. I tried the dress on inside out, and figured out how much I wanted to take in to get a good look, obviously you don’t want it too tight, so take it in a little at a time if you’re nervous. The black line shows how much I took in this pink dress.

I also ruched the sides of the dress, because I like that look, and it gives it interest in my opinion. Basically, take some elastic (the pink was 6”, the red was 4” worth) and I started it at the waist, then stretch it while sewing it on over your side seam.

In this one, I haven’t trimmed off the extra fabric when I took it in. Here’s another picture of it with the elastic sewn in.

Here is how it looks turned right side out.

This dress I just wanted the ruching to be the focus, so I did a lot. Back to my red dress, I didn’t want it to be the main focus, just add some interest and character, if you will.

That’s how much I put in the red dress. I used a little thicker elastic, and it was harder to get the gather as much as the thinner elastic on the pink dress. Keep that in mind.

Then, I used the ruffles I took off the neck to make some little rosettes. I tied a little knot in one end

and wrapped the ruffle around the knot, hand sewing it in place when needed

and then put it on the dress when it got the look and fullness I wanted.

The ruching on the sides

The other side

The full waist

And the lighting was horrible by our full length mirror, so I apologize. Maybe someday my 3 year old will know how to take pictures so I can get someone else to take them….