The Sweatshop of Love Blog

You know when you go shopping and you find THE PERFECT THING? The perfect thing ON SALE! The perfect thing, on sale, that you need it THAT SAME DAY! And the skies part and God’s light come shining down through the top of the store and every answer to every question is found?

For me that has only happened once.

It was my 22nd birthday, New Years Eve 2006. Since my birthday is a drinking holiday my birthday is only as important as I chose to make it. I’m not a huge birthday person so I don’t mind. I usually have to make myself a birthday cake to bring to whatever party we are going to.

This year it was brownies. I had to go to Target for eggs since everywhere else was closed. I was walking down the center aisle when God’s light shone down on this dress on the 75% off clearance rack. I walked over.

It was like $8. It was in my size. There was only one.

It was obviously God’s birthday present to me! He had never gotten me anything before, so I was quite surprised.

It was magical. I put it on at like 4pm. I baked it in, with my apron on so I wouldn’t get any brownie on it.

This dress and I have been through a lot.

I was Amy Winehouse in that dress for Halloween 2007. Remember Amy Winehouse?!

I even went to a wedding in this dress. I cleared it with the bride pre-wedding. And it was ok because I knew the bride was going to be wearing pink, the wedding was in August, I had a purple shawl with it I wore most of the time with purple shoes, and the dress hits above my knee. And there were like six other girls in white dresses, too. It was like David’s Bridal up in there.

So I was digging around in my closet, pulling out all my dress options for Chris and Anne’s wedding this weekend, and I found this dress. And I love this dress. And I hugged it. And I put it on and, despite a 25 pound weight loss since buying it, it still fits. And I spun around. And I took it off because if it’s just barely ok to wear a white dress to a wedding in August, it is certainly not ok to wear one to a wedding in October.

But I tried on all my other dresses and nothing was good enough! So I thought of wearing a cropped sweater over it, so just the white bottom would show. I really looked at the dress and it was all stained and gross from Halloween and party damage.

Then I had a brilliant idea: I’LL DYE IT!

I bought some green dye specifically for polyester fabric. I don’t have my own washer so I do it the old fashioned way – heating the water on the stove top and pouring it in a bucket.

(Like how I’m using a knitting needle to stir?)

As it was drying, though, I knew it wasn’t going to work.

The dye took to the stains that I knew were there, and it really took to the stains I didn’t even know where there. How the staining didn’t show up on the white fabric but are super evident in the green I have no idea.

But, obviously, just dying the dress is not going to do it.

So I needed to do something with the top of the dress to cover up those stains. I knew I had a piece of black lace in the back of my closet I pull out sometimes to use as a shawl, but I knew it was in bad shape. I’ve been using it since I was a senior in high school.

I pulled it out, cut it up, and was able to piece together enough lace to cover the top of the dress! A lot of it was ripped, a lot of it was discolored.

I had to hand sew it onto the dress because I didn’t trust myself enough to use a machine. I had to get the lace close enough to the belt so none of the green peeked through between the belt and lace, and there is no way I could have done that with a machine.

But all that work paid off! I hereby give you Before and After: The Dress God Gave Me

I’m in love! The lace was the perfect finishing touch. There is a little discoloration with some staining on the front. I’m going to wash it and see if it goes away. It is totally wearable; the discoloration is hardly noticeable. But it’s worth a try!

I’m so happy with the way it turned out!

It cost about $3 and only took about 5 hours to alter. The time consuming part was hand sewing the lace. But I love this kind of stuff. And when you are self employed you can make time easier than you can make money. And no one else in the world has this dress! That is priceless.