So we have a red dress. It’s a big hit. Hayla gets full credit for finding it at a thrift store. My niece wore the heck out of it. She was then generous enough to send it to our house where Mona promptly wore the heck out of it. (BTW, it was like a million years old when Hayla found it.) Then, of course Mona passed it down to Olive, who wore the heck out of it too. Since it entered our home, it’s been one of those clothing items that I’ve had to hide when it was dirty so I could successfully wash it without it being sneakily removed from the hamper by a couple of stealthy little girls who’ve both, in the past, insisted on wearing it to school three days in a row (and sleeping in it).

Here’s Mona wearing it in the cul-de-sac in the summer of 2008:

Here’s Olive wearing it at the Jefferson Memorial in the winter of 2010 (it’s quite versatile):

Needless to say, I haven’t been looking forward to the day we’ll have to pass the dress along…

Currently, the top part of the dress is super stained from art projects among other things, the bow at the neck line is shot, and lately Olive’s complained about the metal clasp hurting the back of her neck (and I think she’ll be growing out of it in the next 6 months or so). …so, in a moment of pure inspiration (after doing a little shopping here), I decided to re-do the red dress…

Here’s a ‘before’ picture:

I wanted to get rid of the top because it had problems, but the skirt is so full that gravity would have taken its toll. So, I sewed one of Olive’s tank tops to the skirt (as a sort of modified suspender solution).

Then, to top it all off, I sewed a fun pocket to the front because she’s a huge fan of pockets (and snaps).

See how nicely it twirls?

It’s a hit. (Plus, it makes a great place to store and transport tiny plastic dinosaurs.)

Oh, btw, here’s a couple other tops I altered for myself with some stuff from the same shop…

…tired blue tank top…’before’

‘after’

…this was because the straps always fall down…