Plaid Strapless Dress

I purchased this cute plaid dress from American Eagle last fall, with the knowledge that it would need some work before it was wearable. So it sat in my closet, collecting dust until I finally took the initiative to transform it into something I could actually wear.

Strapless things which rely on structure rather than stretch are always tricky for me, because I have to buy a size up to fit my bust and then take in the waist. Fortunately, alterations are something I feel comfortable doing myself, partly because of years of experience, and mostly because the dress was only $13 (so if I managed to completely botch the job I could get over the loss pretty quickly).

In addition to taking in the waist, I also needed to shorten the dress about 4". The original hem line had a really beautiful blind hem, but since I struggle with those, I just did a regular hemline in pink thread, so it felt like it was showing more intentionally.

The final issue with the strapless plaid dress is the fact that it is a winter dress. So here are some thoughts on how to warm it up!

Red pumps from Nine West, gold shrug from H&M, necklace by Daisy Fuentes at Kohls, and trying out some navy socks with my heels!


My love affair with turquoise and red continues with this corduroy blazer from TJMaxx. Pink flats from bakers and the super trendy mulit chain necklace are what I'm wearing today!

This is one of those instances when I was looking at a fashion magazine where they throw pretty much anything on and it somehow looks good and then I try to emulate that and it sort of fails.
The satin bell sleeve button down with the peep toe pumps (both from kohls) were making me feel the sexy librarian vibe, so I threw on my glasses that I never, ever wear.