Adventures in Sewing Redo

My first REAL project in sewing was this dress.

I was in a hurry to complete it and had only being sewing a couple of days. It turned out a little bit shorter than I wanted it and the sash was really bulky. But for a first time sewer I don’t think it is all that bad.

I decided I wanted to make some alterations and I made quite a few. 

First I decided to measure the dress against a maxi dress I already owned. HELLO! I wish I thought of that before.
Then I took out some fabric from the back and sides.

Then I added pockets. I got the pockets tutorial from this site.





After adding some ruffles to the bottom and a bow belt, here is my dress redone.

The ruffle tutorial came from this site.

The shirring for the ruffle came from this site.

And the bow belt came from this site.  

Although I didn't use this site at all for this dress...it is my favorite sewing site so far. 

Knowing what I know now there are still quite a few things I would have done differently. And it really helps if I take my time. The dress is FAR from perfect, but I still like it. I may make more changes to it again. Perhaps Ill see how it looks when I am not smuggling a butterball turkey anymore. 

Here is a little Before & After Pic.