Red and Black Week Day 2-Sew Very Goth Installment 1

No outfit post today, as I was just hanging around home and thusly wearing a rather unspectacular and somewhat un-Goth-y cat-hair covered t shirt and athletic shorts; but in honor of Red and Black week, I pulled out an old dress I'd thrifted ages ago with the intention of re-doing it and then shoved in a drawer to age, like cheese. Here's the original dress:

 Sorry it looks like it's been run over by a steamroller, but it's rayon and it was in a small drawer with several other articles of clothing for at least a couple of years, and I was too lazy to iron the whole thing just to get prettier pictures before I chopped it up. So on to the good, the bad, and the positively ugly of this dress. The good:

 Pretty, adjustable corset-like lacing loops on each side.

 Lovely flowery (if wrinkly) fabric, and nice, elaborate buttons. And now, the bad:

 Ruched, puffy-at-the-top, skinny-at-the-bottom pegged sleeves. Sleeves that Joan Collins circa Dynasty would reject as too ugly. Sleeves of pure, undiluted EVIL! And the ugly comes with them:

 THEY HAD INTERFACING IN THEM TO MAKE THEM PUFFIER AT THE TOP! Words cannot express how sad this made me. I wanted to take this dress by the shoulders and shake it, saying "Honey, please. I know Interfacing seemed all stiff, crisp, and alluring when you met, but trust me. It's no good for you-it's holding you back from being the dress I know you can be. Break it off, now, while there's still time!"

 Needless to say, the sleeves had to go. 15 minutes with my seam ripper later, they were history-and the interfacing with them. I thought about just turning the armscye facings in, but decided that the bodice as is was a little too boring and pedestrian for me-but what to do instead?

It was late, and I didn't want to finish-but what I'm going to do is measure straight across the bodice from the top button, cut it off even, and then add some pretty straps, perhaps ribbon or braided, for a cool '50s retro feel. Stay tuned for that, the skirt alterations, and an actual outfit post tomorrow!