DIY - Not so cheerleader anymore.

- Before -
Once, I had this adorable dress. This dress had sleeves and a very, stand-out, collar. I mean, it wasn't ugly before, but now that it's Chicago summer, I felt the need to be make it more Chicago summer-friendly! If it's even possible for polyester to get Chicago summer friendly... I do admit I could get pretty warm it in, but it's perfect for the cooler night like we had on Saturday evening.

All you need is a little DIY to make something old into something new!

- After -

Now it's more practical for the summer season! I love it. I bought this dress thrifting in Milwaukee a few months ago. I'm pretty sure it was only $3.00! I've wore it with the sleeves in the winter, but maybe only twice. I wasn't attached to the sleeves or the collar. Sure it was a cute uniform but I felt too restricted. Instead of feeling restricted, now I feel sort of very cheerleader-ish. Ha. Either way, I love how it turned out. I have so many dresses I need to alter and make suitable for my style now. But that's second priority next to bag designing and creating, and altering friend's clothing. 

To begin altering this dress, I envisioned how I wanted it to look like after I was finished with it. This dress is simple because I am just taking pieces off and finishing edges. Then I...

• I seam ripped the sleeves and the collar off. 
• When I took off the collar, it unthreaded the seam that the zipper was sewn onto the dress with. I re-pinned the zipper back to it's place and refinished the stitching for the zipper in orange thread. 
• I finished the raw edges, where the sleeves were missing, with two rows of orange stitches over a double folded seam. 

I like the small details of pops of color and double stitching gives it a professional look. A really simple altering made this dress into something new. This would even be easy with hand-sewing, if that's all you've got! You don't have to be an expert to do this, you just need patience and the willingness to get it right. I'm going back and forth on if I should be adding some buttons down the center of the chest. But then I could also add one of my vintage trims to the bottom of the skirt. What do you think? Should I add anything else?

xoxo, Alexz