Getting Ready for Las Vegas!

My husband's national sales meeting for the company he works with is going to be in Las Vegas this year in a couple of months!  I have been given the opportunity to meet him up there- whoo hoo!!

I thought it would be fun to make some fun outfits for my trip!!  I made an outfit yesterday but couldn't get good pictures of me in it (it is SO HARD to photograph yourself - almost impossible!) So I thought I would just have to wait until I actually wore the dress and got someone else to photograph.

But - I found another way! :-)  The night that I fly up there is the night of their awards banquet - meaning I would need something nice to wear.  I have several after-five dresses that don't fit, and since I have started this whole refashion thing, decided that I could refashion them!  :-)  But in order to do that I was going to need to use my body double dress form.  I have had it for quite some time but for some reason don't use it as often as I should (but probably will alot more now)

Anyways - all that to say that when I pulled it out I realized that I could use it to get pictures of my other outfit! I don't like pictures of dresses on dress forms quite as well as them on people - but you gotta do what you gotta do!

So here is my dress I made yesterday!

I got the idea from this link.  The main difference is the fact that I lined it.  I used a cream colored muslin, sewed the sides of the main fabric together and then the sides of the lining together.  Then I put the two together, right sides facing, and sewed the bottom hem.  Then flipped it and topstiched the bottom hem and then sewed the armholes and then turned down the top band like stated in the directions on the other link. By adding the lining I did not worry about having to serge any edges - I had no exposed edges.  (In fact the dress is actually reversible which has got me to really thinking about some future projects!)

This dress took only about 1 1/2 hours from start (as in getting measurements and marking out a pattern) to finish!!

Also the top link didn't give full instructions, even though it was super easy to figure out.  I didn't catch on though that your cord for the top was one long piece that only tied on one side.  I used two pieces so that I had ties on both sides.  I think I would have preferred only having a tie on one side.  I will have to remember that for next time.

Anyways, I love how versatile this dress is.  There are many different things you can do to it.  Here are some pictures of ways I have thought of.

 Add a belt!  I love the slimming effect that has.  (of course you have to wear the boots too - I wished they would have come out better in the pic)

 Add a denim jacket to complete the cowgirl look :-)  This is how I wore it to go show my hubby.  His reply "well hello cowgirl" with a great big smile!  He liked it!

 It is also very cute with a short sleeve denim shirt (probably how I will wear it in Vegas...it will be a couple of months from now so probably too warm for the jacket)

 A close up showing the dainty flower print on the fabric.  I think it is very pretty with the denim!

And, to give you a peek - here is the dress I am fixing to refashion!  This dress has a lot of special meaning to me.  My husband bought it for me the Christmas we were dating.  My Christmas present that year was the dress, jewelry and tickets to a show!  (yes he was quite romantic and still can be at times today!)  He picked out the dress too!  I loved it and still do but it no longer fits!  :-(  I gained quite a bit of weight since then and even though I have lost most of it, after three kids my body is just a different shape :-(

Anyways - I have a fabulous idea in my head to refashion it! I just hope and pray that I can make it work!

Here's the dress.

 (sorry - my camera got fuzzy on that picture...but I still think you get the idea - floor length midnight blue)

 It will only zip up halfway :-(  (and this is where the zipper stops on me when I have it on so that is a very good indication that I have my body double set to the right measurements!)

It also came with this jacket - with very tiny arms (they were even tight then)...don't know if this jacket will play a part in the refashion or not.

I will try to remember to take pics along the way of the process and will hopefully have a future post of a cute new dress!!!  (keep your fingers crossed!)