Monday, September 28, 2009

The Remodeled Dress

This is the dress (taken apart already) that I tore down because I wanted it to be just a skirt. Its hard to tell here, but the white top is gathered and scrunched so I couldn't just put a shirt over it because it was too lumpity-bumpity.

Since the skirt portion originally hit just under the bust it was a little too wide, so I put elastic in the back side of the waistband.









The final result, worn with a black top and fake pearls:

The picture is at kind of a bad angle, with poor lighting, but you get the idea. I'm already finding other tops that will go well with it, and I'm thinking of making a bustier style top to go with it for a more formal look.

Also, fyi, very few people evidently read wedding webpages, as the attire at the wedding I attended was most definitely NOT "classy casual" but closer to semi-formal. I would have fit in fine in a cocktail dress, but luckily this was fairly versatile and worked out well


Last but not least, I finished redoing the dresser! It turns out that even though its made out of pretty solid wood, the top, sides, and drawer fronts all had a very thin veneer on them (probably cherry I'm guessing) which didn't take too kindly to me sanding it down through the previous stain. Painting it became inevitable but there are definitely some lessons learned from this:


* Do not take the sales lady's advice and use a primer. Its much too thick and dries too quickly leaving a globby and uneven surface, not to mention it quickly fills up all grooves that might be cut in for decoration. If you must use it, use on completely flat surfaces only and apply in a cool place (to keep it from drying too quickly).

* I'd probably use an outdoor paint, as the indoor latex paint is a bit sticky, scratches or peels easily, and doesn't dry very flat (paintbrush lines are obvious)

* Lastly (this should have been obvious to me but I missed it) don't paint the underside or sides of the front of the dresser drawers. It adds thickness and may make the drawers stick to the dresser or one another.

It feels so good to have "new" dresser and skirt :-) On to the next project!

No comments:

Post a Comment