Sometimes you find an item in your wardrobe that is made from good fabric, but doesn’t fit you in exactly the way you want it to.  When something like this happens, it’s best to either take the item to a good tailor who can understand your vision for what the garment should be, or if you’ve got the sewing skills, re-con it yourself.  I had worn this (formerly) strapless dress with tops layered over it, but for the most part, I found it difficult to wear.  Having that much khaki close to my face washes me out, and because it was super casual, I didn’t have many opportunities to wear it on its own, other than the beach and Busch Gardens.  When trying to figure out what to wear with a pair or brown leggings I recently purchased, I started to try wearing the dress in different ways.  And then, I started to figure out exactly how I wanted the dress to look.  Lots of sewing, spare fabric, elastic, and seam ripping later, and I had a brand new dress.  

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures while re-conning it and I think a tutorial might be really confusing without images.  To quickly describe what I did, I flipped the top over itself, making the dress shorter and placing the elastic under the bust.  I stitched it down like this, and removed some fabric from underneath to created the straps.  I took some scrap brown jersey knit fabric, made a tube with elastic encased in it, and stitched that to the top of the dress.  I then added the straps, and tacked the brown section to them so it wouldn’t fall down.  I realize that might not make a lot of sense.  Tutorial writing doesn’t seem to be my strong point.

By adding that strip of brown at the top, the khaki doesn’t overwhelm and wash out my face.  The neutral of the khaki and olive green print allows me to pair beautiful, bright accents with it, like my jewelry and purse.

Dress: Target (thrifted and re-conned)
Leggings: Target
Purse: Easy Spirit
Flip flops: Columbia
Necklace: Express
Bangle: Gift from friend
Earrings: June Designs