How to refashion a lace dress

A few weeks ago I received a most excellent surprise package full of thrifted & handmade goodies from a fabulous reader in the UK:

lace dress refashion surprise package

The heartfelt card and thoughtful contents even brought a wee tear to this refashionista’s eye…

Among the groovy goodies to be refashioned was this rather puzzling lace dress:

Lace dress refashion tutorial before

Why in the hell would someone design an otherwise awesome lace dress and then completely ruin it by stitching a ridiculous faux leather statement to the front?

lace dress refashioned & dyed after

S o   M u c h   B e t t e r !

Here’s how I transformed that silly thrifted statement dress:

lace dress refashion tutorial

First I oh-so-carefully attempted to remove those annoying letters from the lace but unfortunately they were stitched on incredibly well and I ended up creating a hole…humph! My plan was to dye the dress anyway so I stopped picking and gave it a bath in dark green.

lace dress refashion tutorial

As I had no idea what the fabric content was this magnificent result was a fabulous surprise!

(The lace took the dye so well I suspect it is 100% cotton and as the interior dress barely changed colour at all it must have a high polyester/synthetic content) 

lace dress refashion tutorial

A quick peek into my vintage stash revealed the absolutely perfect sized doily to help get rid of the ripped bit and those silly letters so I pinned it in place…

lace dress refashion tutorial

stitched it on…

lace dress refashion tutorial

then carefully chopped out the lettered piece of lace behind the doily and was left with a gorgeous new front to my fancy new frock!

lace dress refashion after

The dress was actually too big in its original state but the hot dye bath had the added bonus of shrinking it so I didn’t have to! Yay!

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6 Comments

  1. Love how this turned out. Great idea to cover up the hole left by the lettering. You could have even dyed the doily another colour for a different look. Cheers, Michele

    1. Thanks Michele 😀 Replacing damaged fabric with a funky patch is a quick way to not only mend a garment but also improve it and make it extra unique

  2. HappyUKreader! says:

    I am very impressed! I had a few ideas but this is better than any of them. The green on the light background is stunning. I’m sorry the lettering didn’t come off more cleanly, but the doily really lifts the whole thing. It’s beautiful. Very impressive. Well done!?

    1. Cheers Sally! I thought the letters would be a snap to remove too but they each ended up being crazy securely sewn on with 3(!) different types of stiches – the end result is fabulous though so it was a blessing in disguise 😀

  3. hannasaar says:

    I love the color of the refashioned dress! Wow!

    1. Without knowing the fabric content I had no idea what colour change, if any, to expect and am pretty darn happy with the result! – More proof that refashioning is awesome and surprising, unexpected results are a fabulous bonus when upcycling! 😉

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