Blue flower dress

Hey you guys, this is my second refashioning already! Wohoo! (You can see my first one here)

This cutie is a (now sleeveless) shirt dress from Burda Style Magazine, issue 6/2012, model 104. There's not much to say about shirt dresses -this one has a collar, buttons and a drawstring at the waist- except that they're awesome!

When I saw the fabric, I just had to have it. It's cotton, which is lovely, and light and airy without being see-through. That's a win-win! Besides the material, this fabric is all kinds of wrongs for me. I usually feel like I'm wearing someone else's clothes when I'm wearing flowers, for some odd reason. I mean I love flowers, but it always feels like I'm a bit out of my wardrobe comfort zone, which is probably a good thing anyway! I might have been able to justify all the flowers, but then there's the fact that they're blue. Pale blue on top of that. I don't wear that color, ever. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the color, it's just not me. I like my blue dark and in jeans-form, and that's it.

Somehow all the wrongs -busy, flowery and pale- make it just right. A girl knows when a girl knows. Now that I pulled the dress out of the black pit that is my refashioning bag, I love it even more.

So what was wrong with this flowery darling? The "only" little thing was the sleeves -for two reasons. The long sleeves kind of pushed the dress from 'cute and girly' to 'grandma's nightgown' in no time. When in doubt, show more skin. Nothing cures a grandma-look like a little cleavage (or in this case, arms!). The second issue was that the sleeves made it fall in between 'chilly spring-weather' and 'too hot for clothes' summer weather. It didn't help to roll up the sleeves either, when it's hot it's just too hot.

So off came the sleeves, and I couldn't be happier with the result! Inspired by all you fabulous seamstresses out there, I used self-fabric bias binding for the first time ever. I've always been to lazy to cut out the binding, but it wasn't much work at all. Good thing I never throw away left-over fabric (but don't tell my fabric hoarding self that)! I love how neat and inconspicuous this finish is, and I may just have to use it for every single project from now on. No matter if it needs it or not, this is just too good not to use.

Detail - drawstring at the waist

Just as my previous refashion, this dress could also have used a kick pleat. It didn't take long for my unladylike self to rip the fabric by the lowest button. Oh well, I can live with that, but yet again...bad Burda.

Taking blog pictures requires a lot of thought

And look, my sister gave me this beautiful and totally seamstress-appropriate
necklace by Ted Baker <3 I absolutely love it! Thank you sis!