Custom for Dorothy

Last month I received a lovely Etsy message from Dorothy aka tofunation. She had recently purchased a vintage dress online, but like many vintage pieces, the shape was not very flattering.

Subject: Work on my vintage dress?

Hi there,

I'm glad I found your shop. I like the way you're modernizing the vintage pieces. I recently got a vintage dress that I like, but I want it to look slightly more modern and urban. I wonder if you do custom pieces. If I sent it to you, could you help me?

Thanks much!
Dorothy

My response? Helllll yeah! Re-creating vintage pieces is a passion of mine, and of course designing it for others makes it about 100 x's more fun.

A few back and forth messages and a negotiated fee later...

before

Dorothy didn't like the boxy shape of the top and the sleeves were a little too poofy for her liking. The length was also a little long, but she really loved the elastic waist.

I quickly drew out a few sketches of ideas based on her likes and dislikes and came up with this:

Some more back and forth emails later, the price was set, the design was set, and we were both excited for the results!

After receiving the dress in the mail, I worked on it for a few weeks until I felt it was ready to go.

The During

The top part was basically reconstructed with the sleeves and collar removed and sides taken in. Unfortunately, I was unable to create a new waistband like I had originally planned due to the elastic, but the shortened skirt length helped modernize the shape a lot.

And finally...

after

My first custom request, a success! Thanks to Dorothy for the photos and for the request! If anyone else is interested in a custom re-design of a vintage piece, please email me. I definitely want to try doing more custom pieces when time allows. I can do simple hem shortenings to full out re-designs depending on the original piece. I'll work with you to develop an idea and price is negotiable as well!

avantapresfashion@gmail.com

Also, I wanted to mention that the next few weeks may be short on quality updates (it seems each month is dwindling, ahh sorry guys!) due to a massive undertaking of creating five of my friends' costumes for Halloween. I am already pumped for that weekend (very premature, I know)... but hopefully the costumes will turn out exactly how I imagine. Now, back to the sewing machine!