Remake: Green Corduroy Dress

I love thrift stores.  Treasure troves of unwanted items just ready for you to see the potential!

As enjoyable as it is to make something from scratch, it is sometimes more so to remake a dress: changing buttons, adding trim, altering the silhouette until you have something new and wonderful.  It's quicker and usually less expensive then from scratch, and almost feels like delightful cheating.

This is what I have planned for this green corduroy dress I found a few months ago.

At first glance it's a fairly unremarkable dress, rather shapeless, and quite a bit too large for my figure.

What drew me in was the beautiful soft mossy green corduroy, mock tortoise shell buttons, and large patch pockets.  It had potential as a beautiful and warm mori or dolly-kei peice for the cold weather!

So far I have attacked it furiously with a seam ripper; removing the skirt from the bodice and cutting open the side seams.

My next plan is to sew new side seams and adding some darts to make it more fitting to my figure.  Then the skirt will be newly gathered reattached to the bodice.

Image from Folkwear.com

Then comes the most enjoyable part, adding braid, lace, and other trim.

My current inspiration is vintage German dirndls and Tracten fashions, like those frequently worn by the Grimoire shop girls.   They are so elegant and charming, but rather hard to find and *ahem* pricey when you can.

So I am planning to add some sage green and ecru martial braid to the bodice and skirt hem, some delightful knitted trim on the edge of the hem, and ecru crochet doily flowers on the patch pockets.

Hopefully it will turn out well!  Look for more updates and photos in the future!