Frugal Fashion: Turn a Thrifted Wedding Gown into a Stunning Boho-Chic Dress

We’re excited to have Sarah here from Our Life Is Beautiful, sharing with us how to create stunning boho-chic dress out of an old wedding gown. I love the idea of turning thrift store finds into something new and trendy, and let me tell you, Sarah is a pro at it! Becky and I just love her style, and know you will, too. Also, make sure you read to the end. Sarah needs our help, and I’m sure we can all make a big difference for her!

Hello Readers of Utah Sweet Savings! I am so excited to be here, I have been following them for a few years and I love to save money! One way I save money if to buy thrifted finds or use outdated clothes in my closet to make them new again. So let’s get right to my project, shall we?

I found this gorgeous wedding dress at a thrift store. Sure, it’s outdated and not within the time of what’s in style right now, but I can see why a certain lovely bride fell in love with this dress and wore it to her wedding! I am sure she looked absolutely stunning in this dress and I felt a little bad(?) as I cut into this dress and made it into something different.

As I was cutting the endless about of tulle, shoulder pads, giant bow, lace trimmings, lace, and more tulle, I thought of the lady that wore this dress to her wedding. I wish I could meet her so I could see pictures of her in this dress on her wedding day! This is the kind of dress I would have fell in love with back in the day, it’s so fancy and elegant and princess-y. What girl doesn’t want to feel like a true Princess on her wedding day? I wondered what kind of life she had, what she was like, and I wondered why she didn’t keep this dress and what made her donate it, maybe she has passed on to the next life and her children donated it, or she was just de-cluttering. Either way, I hope she would be happy with what I did with the dress and wouldn’t be too sad. I honestly felt like I should have a moment of silence to pay respect to the dress and the lady that wore it, since it’s a piece of clothing she wore on one of her most special and important days. So I did. For real. I am such a dork.

The lining underneath the lace bodice is cream while the lace is white so I dyed the whole dress to a  cream color to match the bodice.

Then while the lace dyed to a beautiful cream color, the tulle got more yellow than I had wanted so I just ended up cutting off the tulle.

*Dyeing tips: Some of you readers have asked for tips on dyeing evenly. I get hot water in a bowl and pour the dye in and mix it well. Then I submerge the clothing item and constantly stir it around for about 20 mins. Like literally constantly without stopping. I like using the pink rubber gloves I get from an Asian market. Then I let it sit for 10 more minutes, constantly checking every couple of minutes to stir it around. Put it in a washer in cold water with a tiny bit of detergent, then dry on delicate. Hope that helps! 🙂

I don”t like any fabric go to waste, especially lace! I knew I wanted to do something with the leftover lace I cut off and after looking at the lace designs, these two designs caught my attention and I instantly thought of a headband to make.

AFTER:

It’s hard to catch the true color of light colored lace, but the lace color turned out to be a gorgeous cream, ivory color. I did A LOT to this dress, I dyed it to cream so the whole dress would be the same color, I raised the waist line so it wouldn’t be like a v-shape waist-line, cut off all the tulle, cut the length of the dress to right below the knee-length, took off the lace collar, lace-bib, cut off the lace cuffs and cut off the sleeves and made it smaller and shorter length, took in an inch from each side of the dress, cut off the train and the giant bow in the back and gathered the extra lace from the sides to add to the back.

This project is a part of a Refashion Runway competition I am in and I would love your vote! This competition has brought out so much insecurity and doubt in myself, and I’ve been constantly nervous, especially this week’s boho-chic challenge. Many people have said while my dress is “phenomenal and the best” I don’t get their vote because my dress isn’t boho-chic. Many of them have grown up during the boho-era and think it’s the same style as back in the day. But boho-chic is the modernized version of the original boho style, therefore the word “chic” added to it. It’s mixing vintage with a modern and Sienna Miller is said to have brought back the style in 2005 with more femininity and lace. I don’t want to lose this week’s challenge because of some people’s own definition of what a boho-chic is, when I followed the challenge 100% and especially when they’re admitting mine is the best transformation and design!

It would totally make my day if you took 3 secs. to vote. I am a runner-up for first place, I am so close! Please go to The Renegade Seamstress to vote, it literally takes 3 seconds, voting ends this Friday Aug. 28th. You can only vote once per device. Thank you so much for your support, it means so much to me!

To view more of my DIY refashions, check out my blog: https://www.ourlifeisbeautiful.com/search/label/DIY ‪#‎sarahsDIY‬

Thank you so much for having me and I hope you come visit. 🙂