Vintage housedress re-sew

I modified this dress to make a cute sundress. I’m running out of cute cotton sundresses, and the heat doesn’t want to let up yet.

The original dress was nice and breezy and the right size and length, but I hated the tight armholes and the high, plain neckline. It made me feel like a frumpy hausfrau. Also, having that lightweight material in the front with such a boxy cut was very unflattering to my breasts. And since I rarely wear a bra, the boxy shape and thin cotton made my tits look blah. (They don’t look all va-va-voom now, but they’re pretty neutral; before I was a little self-conscious.)

I chopped of the chokey neckline midway across the armhole, made as straight neckline (about 3″ lower in the front than in the back) and finished the neckline and added a strap with a continuous line of double-fold bias tape.

The fit was off, so I added some little pinch pleats (like on draperies) near the straps in front and back (more in the back; the natural fall of the straps on the shoulders meant the sides of the back were pulled in a couple of inches on either side.

Then I finished it off by trimming the hemline with the rest of the bias tape, which has the added bonus of weighting it down a smidge. This is convenient because the featherweight cotton meant my dress was always blowing up in the constant Kansas wind–and no one wants an eyeful of that.

Before (standing in the gym stairwell).

After (in the science room):