Brown Crushed Velvet

So back in the day... I had a pretty hot little body. Of course I didnt think that at the time.... I always thought things were too small... or too big... or whatever! I acquired this dress from good ol' TJMaxx!! Man I love that store! I haven't been able to get to it nearly as often as I wish, but I got this back in college when I was out shopping with my sisters. It was on clearance if I recall... and needed to be tweaked a lil to make it wearable.

My oldest sis... FF... did the first restoration on this bad boy... she added a button up top and hand-stiched some of the beadwork that had come off. Anywho, here's what she looked like after FF's restorations.. but before my current alerations!

Before babies I was able to wear this thing sans bra... obviously not anymore... so try to image w/o the ugly white bra straps hanging out! And yes... that is BATMAN on the floor :)

First thing was I had to make the straps around the neck more sturdy.... They were strictly just the beaded strips... and they weren't long enough for the top part of the dress to sit just right on top of "the girls". The beadwork sat a little too high on them for my taste! As you can see in the back there was another string of fabric coming up from the sides to attach to the halter-like portion around my neck. I cut that off and hand stitched the orginal halter part to that. It reinforced the strength (to ensure no wardrobe malfunctions) of the halter and eased up on any discomfort from beads jabbing into my neck! (p.s. the yellow stitching you can see was actually from FF's original alterations :)




After I got that all hand-sewn it was time to tackle the low cut back... I actually quite liked it! But w/o that string pulling up the back was gapping... and well as I mentioned not being able to wear this ensemble braless... I had to come up with something else! I figured I could wear this more like a mini-dress.... or something over leggings... so I cut her off!

After cutting this portion I took it to the machine and did a new hem along the bottom with the crushed brown velvet portion. The pic on the right was me trying to figure out a new back... I used an existing hem on one end I I knew it would be a straight line, and so I didn't have to stitch a new one! I used my strapless bra as a guide for how wide the new portion should be and how much material to use.... The brown fabric sticking out is a liner that I just kept as is...

I also added some fabric on the front... I figured a mother of two should probably have a little less cleavage... and a little more coverage :) I did the same thing as on the back.. using an existing hem so it was a straight line and less stitching!

This was a lot of hand-stitching... I hope I did it allright! Here's what she looks like right now... I feel like I need some input on what to do though.....

Should I keep it as is?.... or alter more? What are your thoughts?

p.s. sorry the photos are sooo bad... it was late last night!