The Birthday Dress

Soooo...the last post we made was about our Pretty Posies...and pretty they were.  So pretty, in fact, we tied for the most viewed link over at Sugar Bee.  We're so excited people are liking our tutorials!!

Then we got to thinking...you saw the Pretty Posies...and you saw Heidi Sage wearing one, but not the ones made in the tutorial...did you happen to wonder what those particular flowers were for?

Well, below is Chelsea's post from her personal blog about those mysterious flowers.  Normally we only post kid things here, but since yesterday was Chelsea's birthday and the flowers had something to with her birthday, we thought we'd shake things up a bit.  So without further ado...heeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrreeeeee's Chelsea...

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It's been two months and I haven't had time to post ANYTHING!!! Don't worry, I'm still here.  Lately I've been spending a lot of time working on design projects for school and creating cute little things for Dressing Heidi Sage. 

On my birthday I usually like to make a cute little dress to wear out and celebrate.  Unfortunately school has restricted my time so much I decided I had no choice but to buy some off the rack.  Gasp!!!!!  Well, as many of you know there are NO clothes in stores in January.  Retailers and designers know that nobody shops in January because they're recovering from Christmas so there is very little new merchandise hitting the floors.  This means that there are never any party dresses for my birthday, which is how I got started making my birthday dress every year in the first place.  This year since I knew I wasn't starting from scratch I decided to shop early.  I shopped online after Christmas and New Years when all the holiday dresses were marked down.  That's right, I like a good sale;)

I found this cute Tracy Reese dress on sale at Dillard's.  I'm usually a good judge of online purchasing based on my experiences with fashion and my knowledge of fabrics.  This looked cute in the close-ups, I liked the fiber content, I liked the vintage look, and I liked the chiffon edge but I wasn't sure if I was going to like the little appliques on the chest.

 The dress looked a little different when I received it than I expected.  The neckline was higher (clearly it had been opened for the photoshoot) and the chiffon edging was out of control long around the neck and arms (also clearly altered for the photoshoot).  The dress, however, fit cute and it was different than the usual cocktail attire that you can find during the winter months.  I liked velvet because it made it feel wintery and I liked the vintage vibe that the dress was giving off.

 The decorative appliques weren't doing it for me however.  They looked cheap in comparison to the dress fabric and they didn't seem significant enough for the lovely velvet.  I did, however, like some of the beads and stones on the appliques so I very carefully took them apart and saved all of the beads.

 I know this makes me look and sound like a crazy person, but I liked the elements so I wanted to reuse them rather than just trashing them.

 The first thing I did was open the neckline so it looked like the photoshoot picture.  Then I trimmed the chiffon trim around the arms and neckline.  It was starting to look more like the original picture but it still wasn't exactly what I wanted. 

 So I made some flowers and I used the beads that came on the dress as the flower centers.

 This is much better than those wimpy appliques!

 Then I sewed the flowers on the dress!  I know I'll have to remove them for dry cleaning so I made them separate units and simply tacked them onto the dress.  I also switched the flowers to the opposite side as the original dress because I like to carry my purse on my right shoulder and I don't want to mess up my flowers.

 The pretty posies!

To complete my vintage, wintery look I found these great pantyhose at ModCloth.

 And I found these fabulous shoes at Kate Spade.  I love Kate Spade merchandise and I LOVE the Kate Spade store in North Park even more.  It's the happiest store in the whole mall.  You can't walk by or go in without smiling!  I was very patient and waited the shoes out until the second markdown.  Actually, I was going to buy them online but was a little bummed about the price, even though Brian said it wasn't a big deal.  The next day I decided I would go see them at the mall in person to make sure I really loved them.  I went to the Kate Spade store and I loved them, but they didn't have my size:(  That night I went back home and got on the website because I knew that they had my size online and they had dropped the price $70 in one day! AWESOME! I will get them on Tuesday, my actual birthday!  I'm so excited!

Brian and I will be celebrating my birthday on Saturday night, so I'll be wearing my cute new outfit!  I only wonder if my sister will think a sleeveless, crimson velvet dress is season appropriate?

Happy birthday to me,