Dress Refashion of Yesteryear

Hi all! I thought I'd share a dress that I made a few years ago. It's gotten a little tight in the bust so I don't wear it much anymore, but I still love it!

Note the almost complete flat-chestedness of 2009.
This was before I had my own machine, so I didn't do a ton of sewing. When I did, it was on my mom's machine on the dining room table, which drove my family crazy because I always left a mess! This dress was made from an old velvet dress of my mom's and a children's size lace dress that I used to play dress-up with.

Basically I just chopped off both dresses at the natural waist and sewed them together. I must've also taken in the velvet to make it so fitted, but the lace isn't gathered at all. There's a back zip that extends below where the velvet was cut. I did a pretty shoddy job of attaching the lace to the zipper, but it looks alright. This was my one and only time working with velvet and it's HARD! My armhole hemming is wacky, with little threads sticking out, but luckily I didn't have to mess with the neckline. When I pulled out the dress to inspect the finishing I realized I hadn't even attempted to finish the waist seam. Yikes!

I also added buttons from my stash to one shoulder for some extra detail. I actually got a lot of use out of this dress; I wore it to the symphony a few times and to a couple dinners with J. It's shorter than what I normally wear but I love that it makes my legs look miles long!