Thrifted Refashion: Dress to Corset Top

June 19, 2023

(This post contains affiliate links.)

[corset top: refashioned thrift find | dress: free at a clothing swap | tights: Amazon (affiliate) | glasses: Zenni (affiliate) | necklace: thrifted vintage]

Way back around 2012-ish I was obsessed with New Dress A Day. I checked the blog religiously as Marisa refashioned tired thrift shop finds into fabulous fits every.single.day.

Fast forward over a decade later and I finally have a little sewing experience under my proverbial belt. And thrift shop projects are great for experimental beginners because if you mess up, it didn't cost much to begin with! So I have been channeling NDAD when I shop lately, and recently I came across a dress that had a great corseted top but a kinda wonky-fitting bottom.

strapless corseted mini dress with pink tropical floral print

[original garment via Fashion Nova]

Looking at the original product photos from Fashion Nova, I can see why the fit is so far off on me - I don't have enough hip or butt to fill it out as intended! It looks amazing on the model, but trust me, the whole skirt situation looked entirely different on me, and not in a good way. However the top part fit awesome on me and the dress was only $3, so I bought it with a plan to separate the bodice from the skirt.

process photos of various steps in the process of turning a thrifted dress into a corset top

I chopped off the skirt and saved it for a future project. The dress also had a zipper that I removed and set aside for later.

Once I had those parts out of the way, I added some pink eyelet lace trim that I also found at a thrift shop to finish the bottom edge. Then I re-engineered the closure using a snap out of my collection of vintage sewing notions.

For more details on this project, check out the full story in my Snapchat profile highlights!

The finished corset turned out even better than I imagined! I styled it over a simple jersey slip dress that I picked up recently for free at a clothing swap. (Clothing swaps are my new favorite thing ever and I can't wait to go to another!)

I've got some other recently acquired garments waiting to be altered, and will definitely keep shopping with this kind of project in mind, because this was a lot of fun!