The Adventures of the FeltWoman: A Tropical Delight

My first creative exploit happened about a week ago, here in Maine. I went to the local goodwill and found this cute, if not abrasive, number for $4.99!

I belong in Dirty Dancing...

The overall shape was really cute right off the bat. I liked the whole 80s-does-40s cut and the pattern was intriguing as well (if not a bit overwhelming on that white background...). And yes, I belong at the resort from Dirty Dancing (The original. NOT Havana Nights...)

ALSO!

Pockets!!!

It has pockets! I think every dress is better with pockets...but that's just me...

So, yay. This dress has some major potential. Unfortunately the top made me feel like I was enveloped in football padding...

Ahhhhh

Like really, tell the Texans I'm signing up.

These shoulder pads make me feel like JJ Watt

So, yes, that would be the first thing to go. Along with those sleeves.

Oh yeah, here we go.

Next, I put the dress back on and added darts to my sides to coordinate with the pre-existing ones on the front and back into the waist, and took care of the rest of the excess size with tucks in the shoulder seam.

Now, I had to fix that hem from the dark-ages. The dress already had a lot of topstitching in the original white and considering tight stitches like that won't always take the dye as well as the fabric it is on, I decided to keep it consistent prior to dye.

I really loved the idea of having some length, but I also wanted the dress to be fun and flirty. I set my sights on a hi-low hem (or as my friend Sarah says "mullet hem").

OOoooo, yeah. Look at that sexy hem!

This dress was really starting to take shape. But now it was time to take color! I decided the print would be much nicer against a blue background. Something to really subdue the large strokes and compliment the teal. I started with...you guessed it - Teal.

Uh-oh...that looks a little...GREEN.

I decided I would need to mix some Evening Blue and Aquamarine, just to make sure the color was less green and more BLUE. After testing some excess hem fabric, I realized that the fabric would not take dye easily. Key word - easily. It would take, doggone it. It would just take some time. I set the dye for what seemed like 30 - 45 minutes. Afterwords, I rinsed the dress a dozen times by hand in the sink - I didn't want to take any chances with an older dress.

And let me tell you, this dress turned out better than I every could have hoped!