I was chalenged by an evening gown

I have many many dresses but untill recently I didn't have a floor-length evening gown. Not that is was in need of anything that formal.......still I felt like something was missing :P.

Then I found this light blue one that I had seen hanging around my favorite shop for a while. I took a liking to it but seriously doubted that it would look nice on me. It's a bit of a bridesmaides dress(don't know if it really was but it just has a very bridesmaidy feel to it), and those are usually not the most charming however pretty. Then, just for fun, I decided to try it on. It fitted me perfectly and,against all expectations,I did not look like I had punt on 30 pounds.




The dress was a bit of a problem child. It was a little torn on the side seam had several big water stains and the smell of the last owners sweat was still present. All in all in a far from perfect condition, but also a condition that made it rahter cheap. And because I fell in love with it I decided to take on the chalenge.




Frist I soaked the armpitts and rubbed them in with mild detergent. After washing this out I made the entire dress wet to remove the water stains (they disapaer when the entire garment is wet without the use of soap). I was stupid enough not to remove the shoulderpads and the back lining beforehand. This made that the top of the dress dried much slower than the rest of it. This caused the dye to form a kind of banded pattern I knew as chromotographie from science class. To make it even worse: the smell from the armpits had not gone.




I dit not give up and removed the schoulderpads and lining. On the internet I found that the sweaty smell might be removed with white vinegar(really usefull tip, it is perfect and does not remove dye and even brings out colour I found out later). I wasn't sure of how the acid of the vinegar was going to work on the dye of the old manmade-silk tafeta of the dress. I tried it on an inner pocket and the color stayed intact. After soaking the armpits in vinegar for a while I washed the dress in water again an let it dry.
Finally the dress was without any major stains and the smell of sweat. Now all I had to do was put the shoulderpads and the lining back in.



When I took the pads out I noticed there were the letters L(links,aka left) and R (rechts, aka right) embroidered on.

Here are a few pics of me in the dress. Not exactly as glamorous as they should be with an evening dress but for now they´ll do.



The dress is quite hard to date. It could be anywhere from the late 30´s to somewhere in the 50´s(would have been a bit oldfashioned then but whenever you see pics of 50´s weddings bridesmaids sometines wear this kind of dress).



Now I have a proper evening gown I want to wear it. So all I need now is an event to wear it to to complete my chalenge. This is really helping me in actually going to ballet or opera more often the coming (college) year.
Or does anyone have an invitation to a ball for me.........