Refashion: a black flowery dress

This refashion made it onto the blog in May, but I have had this dress for years.  It is a bias cut dress in what would be called 'maxi length' these days, but was just 'long' when I bought it.

It was from Jigsaw and it is made from a wool crepe I think. I wore it a lot for a while and even managed to wear it to a friends party when I was 8 months pregnant, the bias cut was very accommodating to my large bump. Even though it got a lot of wear, the one thing I didn't like was the neck line - I really don't like high necks. I don't think they are flattering to me and I hate feeling that I am choking. I always thought I could do something about it, but it spent a very long time on my list of things to do.

Earlier this year, I needed a dress for the funeral of Husband's Grandmother. We were told not to be too sombre, so I thought a black dress with flowers might be suitable, and realized this was the perfect time to attempt my refashion..

I cut a good length off the skirt which brought it to my knee. I drew a better neckline on the dress with chalk, basted the dress and lining together along the line that I had drawn then cut into the dress being sure to leave enough for a seam allowance. I had visions of creating a large floppy cowl type collar with the portion of skirt that I had cut off. This didn't quite work - I spent ages pinning and draping, and ended recreating a similar neckline to the Colette Jasmine top, including the little loop to feed 'ties' through.

I only got one photo that day, which can be seen here, but have since worn it to our local Cricket Club Dinner Dance - where Husband received the cup for the highest batting average of the season for the 2nd XI.