Pinch of Pink Dress Refashion

I picked up a couple of dresses on an online super clearance. The price was right and they looked good in photos, but when they arrived, I realized that I had ended up getting a shapeless knit tent.

The dress was comfortable, but needed a tiny bit of work… namely a solution to make it look like a dress and not like I was wearing camping gear.

First I created a waist.

To do this, I first brought in the top of the dress from each side. Then I created pinch pleats, two in the front, one on each side and one in the middle of the back where the dress had a seam.

The pleats serve more than just to create a waist, they also give the skirt more dimension and movement.

Then I chopped off the sleeves to be 3/4 length. I didn’t hem them because the material doesn’t fray.

This dress is bright pink, so not entirely my norm, so I knew I’d want to tone it down with accessories. My favorite cardigans are 3/4 sleeves so that change made the most sense.

I prefer to wear this dress with a belt and tights… and I almost never go anywhere without a cardigan, especially now that we’re into fall.

Refashions have been fewer and farther between these last few months, solely because 90% of my sewing supplies have been packed while we lived in the shoe box. Also, anyone notice that the before pictures are in the old house and the afters are in the new one?