Sewing challenge

I was approached by Albuquerque the Magazine to participate on a prom dress makeover project. Or maybe it's bridesmaid dresses. Or both.
I was given two dresses and asked to turn one into a handbag and the other into an apron.
I think this will be in the February/March edition.

The first dress was a casual Hawaiian print. It wasn't what I expected, and to be honest, I didn't feel very inspired by this fabric. I think it would make a fine men's Hawaiian shirt, but not much else. I wanted to make a bag like this one but much bigger -- like a casual beach tote. I didn't have enough fabric. It's really challenging when you have a garment with seams and slits and zippers and not just a big piece of fabric. In hindsight, I wish I'd considered a yoga mat bag. I don't know that I had enough fabric for that without having weird seams all over the bag, anyway.




The second dress was exactly what I pictured: Big, poofy sleeves and everything. My mom wanted to get in on this project and she had some great ideas. We really utilized everything, including the existing neckline and the rosettes from the sleeves. OK, we did not utilize the puffy sleeves.




I'll post more when the issue publishes. I'm sure their pictures will be much better, and I'm excited to see what other people did with their dresses.