Day 345 - Refashioning one of my Grandma's dresses

I have a special refashion today. Special to me. This is a dress that used to belong to my grandma. In fact she loved sewing and it looks like she made this for herself. She died about 18 months ago but a few months before that she moved into an aged care facility and she gave me some of her clothes. She was a couple of sizes larger than me so this is the first time I've tried a refashion of one of her dresses. Her eyesight being a bit poor there were a few stains on the front so the first task was a wash. :-) This in itself gave me a smile at her memory.

The before picture.

First step was to cut off the sleeves, and then take both sides of the dress in by about an inch.

Then I added a couple of rows of shirring elastic to the shoulders at the front. This elastic was also gifted from my gram, and this was my first time trying shirring. It was really easy, and I will definitely be doing it again soon.

Then I found an old belt meant for another vintage dress that I never wear the belt with, and wrapped it with red lace (also from gram). My Gram was quite flamboyant at times so I felt the dress should have a bit more colour in her honour.

To match the belt I used a red felt brooch which I made very early on in my 365 craft project. I actually pulled apart the brooch and then sewed the front section of it onto the dress by hand, with 2 strands of green embroidery thread.

Here's the finished dress.

Before and after.