From Drab, To Fab!

Upon seeing this dress, I immediately felt drawn to it - not for the color, so much as the mesh of colors within - reminding me of purple and aqua success combos and those who love their colors within. The periwinkle fade in parts, combined with the butterflies reminded me of metamorphosis in a recent article that I mentioned - and the metamorphosis all of us continually are circled in. I was drawn to the potential the dress had from a seamstess' experience at the cutting and drawing board from designing dresses for women and ladies, and young girls alike. I had a vision for a sky of dreams - layered pixie fairy girl effect - much like the angular flow of the Peter Pan side kick Tinker Bell wears, but not nearly as sexualized as some adult cosplay can be. And I wanted to add an edge of elegance, maybe a - symmetricsal, but sort of like a 20s flapper feel with triangle flowy material. A mix of styles, worlds, and time eras, so to speak.

For the images i'm about to share for the purposes of showing you how to go from "drab" - an opinion I curated simply from the shape alone of the dress - however much potential it had - and so desperately needed -- and perhaps could use some more of... But for today, and today only - we are going for the basics, the bare minimal, so to speak of completely re arranging a dress that you might not wear anywhere but the bathroom or fitting room step in during the Global pandemic, while still trying to pretend we really shop "for real" instead of masquerading around stores in and out of aisles and behind racks, and bee lining in a maze towards the full length mirrors by the jewelry counter to exclaim (sometimes to ourselves as a posed question while social distance shopping alone) "well, what would this ACTUALLY look like if it was really on my body instead of on a hanger in front of me, without touching me, in front of this mirror to cluttered with the reflection of diamonds to truly let me -- or the outfit-- shine?

These blasted regulations! Such killjoys to the fashion empire. You're telling me, honey. I know.. Eye roll emoji placement, please!

Now that we are talking about fashion killjoys, can we mention the church? OH. Sorry Jesus. God. Pastor, Father, Everyone's religious upbringing of a family who believed in nunnery style improvisation wardrobes of the 21st century with just a small tid bit more color. Exaggeration? Not much worth mentioning for there to be one. From Drab..... To Fab... Read my lips. Oh wait, they're going to tell me lips are wrong too...

Point made, lesson learned.

Now let's move on. Like with the times, and the fashion movement... To Fab! Learn to let it go a little!

Speaking of moving on, and letting it go... If there are any readers out there who have seen my body in previous versions of my metamorphosis - aka when I had more curves that differed in different places, more weight, and before I lost it... Don't judge me for letting myself go a little in the other context of the phrase. I've had a rough patch. And have I? Maybe. in some aspects. And it's been eons since I've posted myself this publicly. I'll know the naysayers apart from the uplifters though. Thank you. It's Valentine's Day as I write this, and Romeo and Juliet would literally die rolling over in their graves if they knew that not enough love was being passed around on the anniversary of -- Oh, wait... we're a little too late for that. Oops.

Don't commit suicide. Ever. For anyone. Period. In any Historical period. Period.

Back to saying yes to the dress. Thank you David Tutera for the comeback phrase of the century of fashionistas everywhere and the credit to your work. Way more fab than my basics tutorial for today. You lead the way.

I had to change this drab shape and revive it to reveal the potential to religious run thrift stores everywhere of what could be -- while still being modest, and TRULY having fun. Not just pretending to

Let "Girls just wanna have fun" play in your head a few times or turn the soundtrack on. You'll get the point.

I saw this dress for the first time about a month back; I wasn't surprised that literally no one had bought it yet, or had a turnover rate in the store for it. Nor was I surprised that no one threw it out. Do they ever? No. They just put drab on a hanger or shelf and expect for the words confidence and magic to be synonymous and also banned from existence and upbringing.

#sorry,notsorry

Really.

But somewhere in the course of that month, here's what happened: Someone stole my entire container of belongings while I was in a meeting. I was told my items weren't welcome, and I attempted to respect the personnel in order to receive more respect in return. And in that time, it was stolen. still not returned. And yes, that included my Diaper bag turned corset project. all the pre cut, ready to sew pieces for BOTH Corsets. from the outer and inner lining. I still needed to find a fashion project- turned blog material piece to type up and make money off of, as well as gain me reads, views, and clicks.

Life lesson: When someone pulls you back, or disappoints you, don't let it completely steal your opportunity to make things happen - even if it isn't the something you were trying to make happen.

And Boom! I got to work, picked out the clothes, outfits and added it to my cart along with the perfect accessory piece -- or two, when being politically correct in the face (literally) of COVID.

I started with a BEFORE pic. To see progress, one has to see where they came from, or what they looked like when they did.

Then, I drew a few lines in a color that wouldn't blend too much with the already properly blended purples blues, periwinkles, lavendars and aqua hues we had going on here. Green. Big, Bold, jumpy green - like the bold cuts and progression I was about to make into the folds of the skirt of the dress.

My anticipation danced like the jitterbug as I made my cuts. Up, then down. And, correcting some uneven edges, making isosceles and obtuse triangles in the same skirt, stand out from each other, and in complimentary ways. I let the triangles do the talking, and the colors compliment each other as much as they contrasted, drawing out the differences in the fabrics for a bolder, less blended look. This took a trained eye, and about 30 minutes of scissor work, as well as angling and trajectory of where the cut should be (since I don't own high - tech laser scissor gear of the century. (No matter how popular it may be, I don't quite measure up to their hype.) Consider that the biracial combining allegory of olde fashioned and new fashioned into the same family. Olde fashioned tools CAN make a new fangled dress, and yes -- old dogs CAN learn new tricks.

(You should have seen my Lindy Hop improvement just the last week. It can happen, people.) Before and afters are worthy of fashion and blogging, no matter the kind.

I was nearing an easy, breezy beautiful finish. Without the makeup. Women need to be able to embrace themselves both with, and without it. Makeup isn't a must, it's a make - up tool. Having it all the time wouldn't be enough variety. Like the church's wardrobe. But backwards. Thank you Cover girl for showing the possibilities, though.

Now -- for this Cover "they" featur-ette-ish model of the after results.

And ladies, here you are:

Also, for those of you single ladies (and single gents, bi, gay, LGBTQIA) and single everybody in - betweens - If you are alone on Valentine's day, too... Don't worry about the gals or guys... ACCESSORIZE!