Whole Lotta Flowers

This title was inspired by the sentence that my husband couldn't stop muttering every time I came out and asked "does it look ANY better?" I don't know how I feel about this one folks - mainly because, well, it's a whole freakin lotta flowers. (Like how I changed it up there?)

First, let us back up to the inital state that this atrocity was born. It looked like this:

No laughing at the un-makeup'd face or the glasses.

There were 2 things that I enjoyed about this dress: it actually fit me well enough that I would not have had to take it in - the waist was already naturally cinched, and I also kind of liked the print. I'll regret that second one later. There was a way longer list of things that I didn't like: the altogether old lady look, the weird arms, the even weirder shoulders, and the awkward length to name a few.

First thing I went for were those awkward shoulders. Initially, I thought it was shoulder pads that I would find. This was not the case, because what I found was even more odd than shoulder pads:

They were two scrunched up pieces of hard, thick tissue paper-esque type fabric. No wonder they were so itchy. So I ripped the fabric out which, incidentally, also solved the weird arm issue because they were sewn right into the seam of half the shoulder. In the process of ripping out the weird shoulder pads (not even sure if that's what I can call them) it also ripped off half of the arm. I just continued, at this point, to seam rip and ended up with two arms separate from the dress. Goal accomplished. While I was taking things away from the dress, I took off about 3" from the bottom to hike the hem up a bit.

I soon realized that the 3" wasn't enough, so I cut off about a good 2 more inches. My goal was to keep this a work dress, but also didn't want to show up looking like an old school marm. The definitions of our dress code, according to the policy book, is that dresses and shorts have to come to "mid-knee". That's right - not mid-calf, not knee length, but "mid-knee". Considering the fact that the patella is maybe 2 inches in diameter, this is a pretty specific length, but that's for other times.

So along with the length, I decided to try to get more flowers out of this dress. In my attempts, I decided changing the neckline was the way to go. I decided to go with the simple V-neck again, so I cut a straight line down about 3.5 inches down the front and pinned them down. This dress was ready for the big bad machine.

Now. I hope you all are sitting down reading this because I am about to say something that has never happened ever to me. Are you ready? I actually sewed all of the hems (arms, bottoms, v-neck) without any mess-ups. That's right - that is no misprint. Everything went smoothly and I didn't even have to rip out one stitch. I may or may not have completed a full-out happy dance after discovering this fact. (P.S. If this "may or may not" confused you - I'll clarify with... it happened.)

At this point, I had completed everything that I had wanted with this dress. So I put it on. And it was still a whole lotta flowers. Shit. It is better - but it's still not exactly the awesomeness that I had pictured in my head when I started. I did try to class it up a bit - I put on a long necklace and a black cardi, but it didn't save it. The hubsters idea was to break up the pattern with a belt. I do grudgingly agree with that fact, but the problem is that I don't own a wide black belt. Or many belts. With any luck, a few more trips to Salvation Army will solve that issue.  So... here it is.

Ignore that face too. And the white socks. Let's be honest - you're lucky I don't have sweatpants on under this.

 

So it's not the best, but it's what I have. I'm happy that I've finally completed something without messing up royally, but I'm not all that happy with the final product. I'm debating now on chopping it in half and using the top as a shirt so I can get rid of the "whole lotta flowers' with some black slacks.

 

I'll throw it out to you guys - chop it in half, or keep it as is and go with a wide black belt? Leave your comments below!