lone find

When I went to Goodwill this morning I was looking for another linen blouse or jacket to dismember and reassemble as a base for my next piece. Instead, I found this dress. It's lightweight linen and flawless, as if never worn.

 I cackled gleefully when the clerk told me that it was 50% off today, $3.79 please! At that moment I still intended on taking it all apart, starting with picking off all the mother of pearl chips sewn to the bodice. She was appalled.

Once I got it home I made the mistake of putting it on.
 It's so Not Me that it might as well be a Chanel suit but looking at myself in the mirror wearing it was a surprise. I started imagining what I could do to make it right.

I have so few occassions to dress up that I need the yardage (and there are acres of it - it comes down to within inches of my ankles and all those pleats!) more than I need another dress. There are enormous shoulder pads tacked in that will be gone before the beads. I'll be taking that schoolmarm neckline to dizzying depths and maybe cutting out the tops of the sleeves. Those points on the bodice could be extended and the pleats stictched down to the hip maybe...I checked and linen will take the dye ...hmm, deep purple, teal, golden brown... What makes me think I'm a dressmaker? If it goes down in flames it can still be part of the Art.