Makeover Monday: Sweet Sweden Dress

Good afternoon! I am starting a brandy new series here on the blog called Makeover Mondays, where I will makeover a vintage or thrifted item to make it a little more modern and wearable!  I am so excited to share my very first one with you guys!  I alter many of the vintage dresses that go into my shop, usually shortening the hem to make the garment a little more modern.  I realized the other day that no one actually gets to see the garment before the alterations take place and therefore cannot appreciate what goes into it!  Most of the time, the garment is beautiful in its original form as well, but oftentimes a long, really full skirt is hard to pull off and can look frumpy on the average individual.  This is all personal taste of course, and everyone I am sure has their own opinion on what is the most wearable cut! That said, I use my own judgements on what I think would look better shortened. And here I present to you, this week's makeover!

 

 

Outfit Details:

Dress: Vintage- for sale in the shop here!

Belt: Vintage/ Thrifted

Purse: Vintage/ Antique Store

Shoes: Thrifted

Necklace: gift

    I fell in love with this dress when I first laid eyes upon it. Now that I know how to sew (though I am for sure no expert), I love thrift shopping so much more.  It is really exciting to be able to see the potential in a vintage garment and know that you can give it a little update.  It is so fun to watch something be transformed by the power of your own two hands (well, and the power of my beloved Brother sewing machine).

     The embroidered flowers and oversized bib collar on this are amazing, it reminds me of a traditional dress from Sweden.  I decided what better accessory to pair it with than a bright bouquet of local flowers that were given to me by my roommate. Aren't the gorgeous?! I also decided to try to actually style my new shorter hair cut in a different way.  When it comes to my hair, I am definitely a shower-and-go type girl, but I figured I may as well try to figure out a few different ways style it for when I feel like making a little effort!

     On a slightly more melancholy note, one of my favorite picture taking locations in a field in front of the mountains by R's house is being made into a housing development. We pulled up and instead of an open prairie with a mountain trail, there were huge piles of dirt and heavy machinery. There is still a lot of open space in Colorado, especially compared to where I am from in New Jersey, but it is still heartbreaking to see bulldozers overtake an area of natural beauty.  As the Joni Mitchell/ Counting Crows song goes:

"Don't it always seem to go, 

That you don't know what you got till it's gone,

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

Hope you guys enjoyed the first rendition of Makeover Monday! If you have any thoughts or suggestions of things you would like to see in the future, etc., I would love to hear them!

xo Hannah

p.s. Like the dress? It is a size Medium, now for sale in the shop here!