The TWICE Refashioned Dress

Have you ever refashioned the same garment more than once? No neither had I, until this. Sometimes, our makes just don’t work out and a fail is a fail and that’s okay. I don’t know why I really wasn’t prepared to let this go, it’s not a special fabric or sentimental make so I am not sure why I wasn’t ready to accept defeat. Stubbornness I suppose!

Let me talk you through what happened. Firstly, I found what I can only describe as a denim duvet cover in a charity shop. I don’t know why you would make a duvet cover out of denim and it was clearly unused so the previous owner must have been baffled as well. But nevertheless, it was a single duvet cover and it was denim. I liked the pale blue stonewashed look and liked that despite denim being my absolute favourite fabric, I had no light denim whatsoever in my wardrobe (should I have taken this as a warning? Yes, yes I should).

I added the denim duvet cover to my stash and waited for the perfect project to come along, which it did, when Simple Sew asked if I wanted to sew one of their patterns and be featured on their blog. I had been meaning to sew the Simple Sew Zoe Top for ages and thought this was the perfect opportunity to try so I jumped at the opportunity and said yes!

I decided to make a dress hack of the top pattern by adding a simple gathered skirt and I decided to really show off all the topstitching opportunities in the pattern by using this neon pink Gutermann thread. I was really excited! The dress was simple to make (as the name Simple Sew would suggest!) and I was pretty pleased with the finished dress, I noted in the blog post that the neckline was a little wide and I would reduce the width next time but I would still wear the dress.

I didn’t.

I thought the width of the neck was the reason I wasn’t wearing it, it was so wide it showed my bra straps and I literally never wore it once. I think that’s the danger of still sewing new clothes when I already have so many things that I LOVE in my wardrobe, anything at all that I am lukewarm about is not going to get worn at all. So, here comes refashion number one: I unpicked the skirt and used the Pattern Scout Fern Top to cut out another bodice from the duvet cover. I wanted to toile the Fern top anyway for a linen dress I was hoping to make, so I was both refashioning my unworn dress and making a toile at the same time – EFFICIENT eh?!

Ultimately this was a winner, this neckline and bodice shape is much better for me and I loved the shape (so my linen dress was a go!). I had lots of neon pink topstitching on the skirt so I once again did the pink topstitching on the bodice to match, onto a winner now right?

Wrong.

I did this refashion in July? I think? And STILL didn’t wear the dress once. I tried it on to figure out why, I like the shape, I like the length, I like the pink topstitching, I do not like the colour. UGH. I don’t wear pastels, I never have liked them and always reach for deep, dark, saturated colours. I don’t know why I thought this was missing from my wardrobe as I am clearly a creature of habit.

SO, time for refashion number two?!

Well, obviously from the pictures you can see I dyed it black. I think my natural choice would have been navy blue but as I already have my indigo denim Ellis Dress with contrast topstitching (recognise the skirt and pockets? Yep, they are the pattern pieces I used for this dress) it seemed to make no sense to have an extremely similar dress in my small wardrobe. I knew that the neon pink polyester thread would not pick up any dye so I had to choose a colour that would look good with the pink, and black just seemed like a great choice.

I used one pod of the Dylon Machine Dye in Intense Black and even though I popped a couple of things in the machine with it, it still came out SO DARK. Colour me impressed (I like puns). The neon pink really pops against the black so once the dress has dried I gave it an iron and then added some MORE pink topstitching to the sleeves and to the hem. Finally it is finished.

Maybe it’s because it’s October, but I’ve worn this dress once already! I like the Halloweeny witchy vibes and I am finally happy with this make. I hope it is something that I will actually get lots of wear out of! Have you ever been so tenacious to get a specific garment to work for you? I’d love to know I am not alone in this level of sewing stubbornness!

For more information on Gutermann’s neon thread, you can find out more from their website: https://consumer.guetermann.com/en/products/sewing-threads-accessories or you can email: gutermann@stockistenquiries.co.uk

Disclaimer: ⭐️Threads were provided last year free of charge in exchange for a review. I am under no obligations to share them again today but always want to be transparent with you!