Dress to jacket

When I bought this dress (for $1.25 at a thrift store) I thought I could just remove the vest and shoulder pads, wear it with a cami, and be on my way.  Not so.

Powerful business woman circa 1985

Once I got it home and tried it on, I found that it was too snug around the hip/buttocks region.  This discovery forced me to get creative.  I began by removing the vest and shoulder pads which had to go regardless of my recreation plans.

Then I made a drastic decision; this dress was going to become a jacket.  I guess it's not really that drastic.  I just had to make it shorter.  But I wasn't certain how it would look as a jacket and once I cut the skirt off, there was no going back.  Fortunately everything worked out quite nicely.

Hello jacket!

I'm calling this my "voting jacket" as I felt very smart wearing this jacket to the polling place this morning.  You may also notice that I made another ruffle necklace.  So much fun!