1 Thrifted and Vintage Denim Vest + 2 yards Floral Fabric = 1 Upcycled Maxi Dress!
I found this vest at the thrift store while looking for jean jackets to upcycle and embellish. I didn't find any jackets that day and rather than be defeated I swooped this up thinking I could at least use the material. The buttons and darts are so cute though. I had to come up with something. Then I got this floral rayon and the blue of the flowers matched the blue of the denim almost exactly so I thought I would put them together.
The vest despite it's cute detail looks and is quite dated looking. I thought by combing the two and somehow changing up the vest, it could look a less 90s but honestly it might even look more so now haha.
It seems the vest had adjustable ties on the back that had been cut off. I knew removing the leftover pieces would leave unwashed denim i.e. dark unexposed denim. I thought I would cut it off but that meant cutting the faux pockets off and leaving the top a bit too short.
I decided to flip the whole vest. The front with buttons would now be the back and this the front. The darts were helpful for form on either side. All I needed to do was lift these darts up so I took it in across the former back.
Now that I think about it I should've cut it right above the pockets and got rid of them to make the new back look less like a front. I thought for sure it would be too short but now I think it would've been fine. Anyway I cut it like so, same all around.
The neckline definitely had to be lowered. I ripped the hem to make for a cleaner transition into a new hem. I used a palette to get a nice circular shape.
I really didn't want it to end up chunky so I just serged the edge and sewed it back. I also cut off the excess of where I took it up. Serged it as well and topstitched both with double seams trying to make them blend in with the double top stitching of the rest of the top.
To cover up the dark spots that I mentioned earlier, I added two pieces of hemmed material from the cut off parts. Essentially giving the top little belt loops.
I did have to take it in on the sides. The way I do that is, I pin it with safety pins while wearing the garment then on the inside mark where the safety pins are then sew along those marking while fading the seam out. Taking it in also helped close up the arm holes a bit.
To the back I added a short zipper to allow me to get the dress on and ensure a closer fit.
Finally, a simple hem to finish off the dress. I used the floral fabric's width for the length since I wanted a longer length for the skirt. However, I think after I get tired of it like this I can easily make it shorter and wear it that way too.
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