Red Things I Love: Little Red Dress

Several red things have come into my life this week. Here's the first installment!

I sooooooo wish I had taken a "before" photo. No, I don't. This used to be a total "grandma" dress. It's a nice cotton knit, and it is always comfy to wear, but it used to come down almost all the way to my ankles. I've owned it for over 20 years. Definitely "old school."

Last time I cleaned out my closet, I almost got rid of it.

Then we had a clothing swap for the Young Women, and a guest speaker who used to work as a shopper at Nordstrom. You know, those personal shoppers who go through the store with you because you have oodles of money, and they help you pick out just the right thing for you? Yeah, I don't know about them either. But I'm here to tell you that they're not just a rumor. This guest speaker was for real, and she was so nice and down-to-earth.

She talked with the girls about how to change up clothing items, and where to wear a belt so it accents your best parts, and how to make iffy clothes a little more modest.

Along with picking up a couple of really cute things - a blue sweater and a black/white skirt - I came home ready to take a new look at my old red granny dress.

Voilá! Introducing...the cute little red dress!

I altered it by basically whacking out the middle. I suppose I could have chopped off the bottom and re-hemmed it, but I liked the fullness of the skirt at the hem length.

I have to admit that at one point I was about to give up. I had envisioned leaving a little extra length so it could be "blousy" above the waist, but it turned out to look just dumpy. Ugh. So I took up my scissors and started whacking again. At that point I figured I didn't have much to lose. The dress had already been hanging unworn in my closet for months anyway, right?

I pulled another couple of inches out of the middle. AND I added this amazing little belt.

You can have this belt, too. I made it myself, and it is easy-peasy. I went to the fabric store and bought a buckle and a yard of wide black elastic. Then I took a needle and thread and hand-stitched the elastic around each of the buckle halves. That was it. Oh, I shortened the elastic by a few inches so it was a good fit around my waist. But that's all there was to it. Cost less than $3.00.

Can I just say that it made my heart happy today when one of my high school students commented how cute my dress was??