Red sailor dress to cute wiggle dress

About a year ago I spotted a dress on eBay that I really liked. It was by Collectif, a vintage-inspired brand I absolutely love because it makes size 6 clothing (you'd be surprised how many vintage reproduction brands don't, let alone high-street brands) and the clothes look nice on my frame. Being on the skinny side but with an hourglass shape rather than a boyish shape, I find that a lot of clothing my size doesn't drape very well. Unfortunately Collectif doesn't have any shops in my neck of the woods, so I have to buy online. Finding a new but unworn dress on eBay was like Christmas - new Collectif but at half the price! Unfortunately at this point I wasn't documenting my refashions so I didn't get a picture, but rest assured it looked like this:

Image source: www.collectif.co.uk

The dress arrived, and it was beautiful! I was chuffed. I always wash clothes before I wear them, so I checked the washing instructions and stuck it in the washing machine (on its own, as it was red and regardless of what is coming next, I'm not entirely stupid). However, when I pulled it out of the machine I almost cried. The lovely white trim on my beautiful dress was now (you've guessed it) a rather revolting shade of pink. I must admit I was also a bit confused. The dress is a cotton/elastane mix, which doesn't take dye very well, so it was a bit odd that the white had turned quite so pink. The colour combination of red and pink was really quite nauseating, but I thought that, as it had taken the red dye, maybe the whole dress would dye. I picked a nice dark navy colour and gave it a go, which was a waste of time because the dress stayed exactly the same pink/red combination as before.

I was getting a bit frustrated at this point, so I did the only thing I could think of. I unpicked the sailor collar from the main dress, along with the trim at the ends of the sleeves. This left me with a V-necked dress with cap sleeves that was OK, if a bit boring.

Here it is, looking a bit forlorn and shapeless

At that point I got a bit bored of messing around with the dress and put it on my mending pile to work on later.

Fast forward a year to December 2015, when I found the dress on the pile and realised I'd completely forgotten all about it. It was wearable as it was, but it just felt really dull. I decided it needed a bit of a change. I had a metre of printed cotton in my fabric bag which contrasted nicely with the red, so I decided to add some binding to the neckline and sleeves and make a waist belt to break up the colour a bit.

Materials!

I cut a two inch-wide strip of fabric and folded the edges in towards the centre of the strip on the reverse of the fabric. I then folded the fabric in half to create the binding. I also decided to add a floppy bow to the neckline, which I made out of a 1 inch-wide tube of the fabric which I stitched into a bow shape and then hand-stitched onto the dress.

The belt was made by making a tube of fabric the same length as the circumference of my waist (plus seam allowance) which was then turned right-side out and pressed so that the seam was in the centre. I then threaded a length of wide elastic into the tube, which was a little shorter than the circumference of my waist. I stitched the ends of the elastic to the ends of the tube and then stitched the tube closed by hand. This made a tight belt that, when worn, is exactly the right length. I didn't have a suitable clasp for the belt in my sewing box, so for the time being I've just used hooks and eyes.

Reverse view of one of the ends of the belt. 

Not the neatest job, but as you can't see it when its on, I'm not too bothered

I must admit, I'm quite pleased with the result. I decided to wear it with these beautiful Tuk shoes that Hubby bought me a couple of Christmases ago:

Oooooooooh...

 Et voila!

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

 Sasha agrees...