New Year, Old Mistakes

Dress? Thrifted and re-worked Shoes? Ash, Winners (here in grey) Earrings? Garage sale Tights? Zara

And just like that, it is a new year. Happy 2012!!! We spent New Year's Eve at home with a small and extremely elite group of family and friends. It was a low key night, except for that moment when my brother-in-law came out of nowhere to beat me in Settlers of Catan and those few minutes after midnight where I kept spraying champagne on our front porch... Other than that, just a relaxed fun. But even though the night was laidback, I didn't want my dress to be... The dress started like this, with a the potential of the well draped bow and beautiful colour hidden by too much fabric...

Just like with my Christmas dress, I thought it would be a simple fix but once I got started, the scissors were flying. The hem came up (yes, way up...), the side seam got taken in, the sleeves were shortened, the overly heavy lining got trimmed down and then the back of the dress got a scoop. I didn't have a game plan as I did alterations (not recommended) and so I should have scooped the back and then taken out the access lining. That didn't happen in the right order and so I wasn't satisfied with how the scoop looked. Here's the full disclosure, instead of taking the time to redo it (ewwww....) I used a trick that any fashion design student knows well... I put some glitter on it. Sequins cover (and distract, unless you point them out like I am doing...) construction flaws. And here you thought sequins were just shiny discs that attracted your eye and opened your wallet. The more you know...