Samantha gets a Makeover: A DIY Dress Redux.

I have an insanely over active imagination. Personally I love it- it’s like everything in the universe is trying to tell me a story- including the dresses. As many of you know by now- I like to have fun with the before looks and since I was already working on a neurotic teacher character for a short film I shot last night- I had some fun creating a love-lorn bookworm named Samantha Spektor- as the character I imagined this dress to be before she got a makeover. So I busted out my trusty tripod and imagined what she would be like if she was trying to create a profile for the newest online dating site: “1-2-3-date” I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it.

Now… on to the make-over. This was another simple shortening job much like my Thanksgiving Redux. I opted to make this a touch longer as well as double rolling the hem. and I also took the top and middle in just a tad…

You can check out my Thanksgiving post on the most simple way to mark your hem. I marked a couple of inches under my finger tips and then, since this was a less full skirt, just folded on half, pinned across and cut off the excess length.

sewing tutorial — Never hurts to use your vintage Goodwill glasses as weights.

Once this was done I simply ironed down a small section…

sewing a hem — Then folded over and ironed and pinned again

Dress DIY — The waist was easy to find due to the old belt loops…

Dress Redesign — So I flipped the dress inside out and pinned where the loop was located.

Vintage Dress Redesign — After this was done I pinned out where I wanted to take things in.

DIY dress makeover — It’s important to cut off the excess seam allowance.

Vintage Dress makeover — I also do what my mamma told me and iron the new seam once it’s done.

So now it’s all done and ready to go. I think we can all agree that Samantha has come a long way from the neurotic book worm we first met on 1-2-3-Date!