RosemaryLong.com

My brother sent me a link to the picture below:

I admired it for a few seconds, then wondered if it was Photoshopped. He made some enhancements to quell any doubts:

One of the fondest memories growing up was spending weekends at my grandparents‘ watching my grandmother sew. I would take scraps of fabric and tape them onto dolls as clothing (yes, despite my tomboyish upbringing I *did* have a few dolls, or maybe they were my cousin’s).

During university, I was big into cosplaying and sewed a couple of Final Fantasy X costumes, as well as a red taffeta dress I actually wore for a students’ club event.

This evening I was going through my closet trying on old dresses, and came across an old bridesmaid’s dress. 

I decided that even though I probably wouldn’t wear this color combination again, the red was stunning and I wanted to see if I could do something with it. The dress was still in good shape except for a few things: I was a bit heavier when I wore the dress, so the boning was a bit damaged from the evening when I was slouching too much, and the height of the waist was at the proper height to make me look squarish.

I snipped off the orange waist tie, tucked in the orange trim at the top, and started to gather the dress in different places.

 

Browsing the first hit for a search for “strapless dress” yielded a few good ideas, and I liked the belted look (hiding the too-high-yet-too-low waist) and petticoated skirt.

Looking further, I found a ruched strapless cocktail dress in the same rich hue, and decided that this would be the inspiration for my re-creation.

Now, sometimes I get lofty ideas in my head that I start but don’t finish, so we’ll see in the near future if I actually complete this project. ;)