Garnet Hill Knock-off Dress $0

This dress only happened because:

1) the stars were aligned the week I was in Colorado

2) Mother Bear and SIL Steph are patient people who sat and watched me work at a snail's pace

3) Mother Bear had navy cones for her serger (mine only has white, which would have looked awful)

4) SIL Steph is a whiz at gathering AND determining the perfect hem length

5) Mother Bear and SIL Steph are both very good at teaching how to edge a neck opening

Boy was I glad I saved this ugly knit dress for over a decade! I originally bought it at J.Jill and thought I was Miss Thang in it. Now that I see the hood, the pockets, the awful sleeves, and the hood again (!) I think I was really Miss Thang Posing As a Polygamist's Wife. Eww. Why didn't anyone stop me?

You can imagine how excited I was when I saw a dress in the Garnet Hill catalog that looked like a ReDEUX possibility. 

SIL Steph taught me to first cut the whole dress up into parts. I had the bodice and the two skirt pieces. We made the waistband with some of the skirt excess. See those poor GIANT pockets off to the side? I felt bad tossing them. I probably could have made my dog an outfit with them.

After a waistband was made we gathered the top of the bodice to it. Hey, it's looking less homely already. I know, you really just want to see the hood get whacked. Soon, my pets. See the printout from Garnet Hill's website of the dress I was trying to copy?

No hood! Shorter sleeves! What happened between the beginning bodice and the end result was me hunching over Mother Bear's fab sewing station for two late nights while I listened to her Rod Stewart CD. I actually played his rendition of "Beyond the Sea" on repeat for the entire second night. Good times. I told my dad about the CD and he was amazed that ol' Rod is singing love songs and not rocking out like he used to. I digress. Mother Bear and SIL Steph taught me how to edge the neck. This was the hardest part. I had to do it three times to get it uniform. This is when I felt bad that they were growing old staring at me sew.

This is the finished product. I'm super happy with it. My one husband is also happy with it. (Get it, one husband?) It's comfy, loungey, machine-washable and dryer safe, and feels really good with leggings under it because then I can sit criss-cross-applesauce safely.