To recap: I started out with a pair of men's Lacoste faded denim jeans, which the boy had thrown out because the knees were ripped.I had a grand vision of turning it into a shell top, sorta like the kinda you might to work under a jacket, but denim. A bogan corporate look, if you will.
Unfortunately, it looked very very bad on me.
And here is what has happened to it since:
I found two pairs of old jeans of my own, and decided to add them to the top and make a dress. The jeans were both different types of denim and different shades of blue.
I couldn't decided whether to go deconstructed and obviously made from 3 pairs of non-matching jeans, or to aim for a more sophisticated look. In the end, I put the whole thing through a navy blue fabric dye to even up the colours.
What I didn't forsee was that the white thread I'd used on all the seams and topstitching would not dye. Also, it was supposed to have an empire waist, but something happened there...
So now I have a very Seventies-look denim dress, perhaps a bit home-made looking but I guess that was part of the Seventies thing too, no?
Here it is anyway. I'm gonna wear it for a while before deciding for sure, but I'm thinking of adding either a minimal ruffle down the centre front, or else a row of small white buttons (blue would have been better but I got 3 kinds a blue goin' on here).
5 comments:
Question: How many pairs of old jeans do you and 'the boy' have? Surely you must have run out by now? Dress looks super cute. Go you!
Very cool, you're so clever Violet!
The dye was brilliant. Really united the colors.
This looks fantastic! Although I think the 3-denim style would have its own appeal, I much prefer the uniform color post-dye. I had the same experience with thread not dyeing like the fabric did, but then I remembered that my thread was 65% poly/ 35% cotton, and the fabric was 100% cotton. So I guess that synthetic stuff just doesn't respond the same way to dye.
Anyway, I think you really made the most of this one! You could still shorten the bodice to make it a true empire waist, but it looks good the way it is. Hope you enjoy it!
donnasoowho: not as many as we used to ;-)
Pollyanna_H: thanks
Nigel: yeah I would have preferred it all one colour, but this is way better than it was undyed.
Antoinette: yeah I did consider re-attaching the skirt to a shortened bodice but was far too lazy. And if I want to do it now I'd have to remove the zip first.
I am enjoying wearing this dress, though I still feel it needs something on the front...
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