Vintage Dress 1

 Hello Readers. I love vintage clothes. But the choice of scratchy polyester back in the 70's has never made sense to me. I am not a fan. This beautiful blue dress was made of the scratchiest polyester you can imagine.

This dress is not only itchy, it's too tight also. 

I saw this ad from JCPenny. This outfit caught my eye because of the light blue pleated skirt. It's fabulous with the casual shirt and sneakers. Could I make a similar outfit? I bet I could.

I cut the top of the dress off. That was the itchiest and scratchiest part because it was right against my skin. I pulled the zipper all the way down so that I could keep it in my new skirt. 

I pulled out some stitches so I could fold the zipper into my new waistband. 

I folded the waistband down and sewed it in place. This polyester won't ever fray so there isn't anything to worry about when cutting it and making it into something new. 

 

I cut some length off the skirt because it was very long on me. I wanted to try the length a bit longer than the model. I wanted closer to the knee. 

 

I sewed a new hem. The only issue was that I flattened the pleats at the new hemline. I could still see them but they were no longer sharp and crisp. 

 

I used a hair straightener to squeeze the pleats back in place. With the heat coming from both sides of the straightener, the pleats were very nicely finished in no time. 

 

Here is my new outfit. I love the look. The A-line skirt doesn't scratch and itch like the tight dress did. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 ***Year End Update***- These pleats were so fabulous but the polyester is not my favorite. Vintage clothes are wonderful but sadly there can be a lot of polyester.