Thrift Day. Altered.

For my thrift posts, I am going to intermittently showcase thrifted items that need some alteration or better yet, were total duds and I was an idiot for buying them... I like to over share about thrifting because it stops me from over sharing about our marriage. Besides, I often buy things with great potential that end up in my mend closet (yeah... it's in the spare room) for ... a very. long. time. And just as Kyla put items that needed to be mended in her 30X30 as a extra prod to get it done, I am hoping that this will help me get behind the sewing machine again. So, send me a friendly message (some would call this a kick in the butt) if I haven't worn this dress in a month...

What? Hand-dyed, Thai silk, full length dress. The sleeves are already stitch ripped off because I got excited...

Where? Stoney Creek Value Village

Why? I totally got seduced by the pretty colours of this dress, the long sleeves and the possibilities. I think long sleeves and a short hem is one of the sexiest things there is... well, besides the sight of Matt coming in the door bearing Diet Coke...

How much? I am not proud of this. The peeps at the VV boutique priced this at $17.99. I think that is waaaayyyy too high for a dress of poor to mediocre quality. I usually pay that much a thrift store unless it's a coat or a leather purse... but my mind was spinning with ideas and my dad told me it was very striking. Enabler...

What am I gonna do? From my sketch it looks like an easy fix. Shorten the hem and make it scandalous up in here. However, I couldn't really try it on in the store because the sleeves were too tight. So, I looked at the seam allowance, saw lots of extra and just figured I could take off the sleeves and rework them. At home, I took off the sleeves, and tried it on properly as it could actually go over my body at that point. Sadly, the fit is really off and when I looked inside the dress, I saw awkward selvage ends and serged ends. I think the dress just wasn't cut and sewn nicely, so the fit is wonky. I will probably end up taking out all the seams on the body (except for the button line down the front), doing a custom fit and then sewing the sleeves back on. It won't be a hard dress to fit and sew to my body but it irks me that I am taking apart and resewing almost an entire dress that cost me $18 at a thrift store. At this point I feel a like a sucker for spending so much at the most overpriced, for-profit thrift store out there... However, I suspect an increase in general sassiness when I wear the finished product.


P.S.#1. Definitely need to start just sketching my outfits. Don't have to worry about lighting, cellulite, growing out my hair or even bother with getting dressed...
P.S.#2. Thanks to Sarah for featuring me on her blog, Yes and Yes. When she emailed me to ask if I was interested, she said some nice things and called me a minx. At that point I was putty in her hands... Check out the post here.