Sew & Tell: Getting Started with Some Bling

Sweet Athena is excited to announce we are starting a new series, if the title has not given it away, 'Sew & Tell' will be based on our experiences learning to sew. Much like the adventures of Foodie Friday we are looking forward to sharing with you what we are learning, creating, and screwing up through our sewing projects.

I should mention at this point that I have lofty goals when it comes to sewing. The big dream in the sky is to buy cheap, overlooked thrift store clothes and create them into pieces I love. There is one woman out there doing just that. Marisa from New Dress a Day took a pledge to only buy used clothing for one year with $365 dollars and to create 365 items. While that year is over, her blog is so much fun to check out. There are many cute and inspiring looks.

I had my first experiment into the world of re-purposing a dress last December for my birthday. For my birthday it was a sparkly bowling party (because what else would you do when you turn 26?). 

Here is the dress my grandmother had recently given me, it had sparkle, but not the style I was looking for.

I removed the shoulder pads, along with the collar to be used as ties on each side of the dress. 

I cut down the center of the dress and then re-sewed each side. 

  The pictures are not the best for showing off the dress, but if you can tell I created a sweetheart cut for my top by cutting it down the center and tying off each side with extra fabric. I also shortened the length of the bottom. I would typically not wear this dress with a gold sash, but really can you have too much sparkle when you are bowling?

Don't my friends look so cute in their outfits! 

~Jess