I have been fortunate enough to celebrate my 50th birthday recently. As I live here in Scotland, and associate significant events - such as mine and others' weddings or my Dad's retirement - by celebrating them with a ceilidh, I decided to invite everyone I know and love to party and dance. In order to make it even more special, I wanted to wear a dress that would be both unique and over the top! Although I am not brilliant at sewing anything from scratch, I regularly upcycle clothes, something I find really satisfying.
I started with buying a dress off Vinted, for a grand total of £7.50. This was a strapless plaid dress from Superdry. Firstly, my strapless dress days are over, so I sewed and attached straps in tartan fabric (purchased from This Little Stitch, our brilliant local sewing shop). It needed to be made a lot more tartan - so I added two ruffles to the bottom of the dress, as you can see in the photo at the top of this post (singing happy birthday to myself, accompanied by the very amazing ceiliodh band The Cutting Edge, who I would completely recommend). I bought an old belt for £1 from a charity shop with exactly the type of buckle I was looking for. I took out the pin and then it was very easy to swap the fake white leather with tartan fabric. I felt there was still something missing - so I sewed myself a tartan ruffle! This was definitely the finishing touch.
It was wonderful to celebrate my birthday with my family and friends. It was a very special event which I will remember forever. And my dress - and my ruff(!) was the perfect outfit! Upcycling is a fantastic way to recycle clothes and to create something which is completely unique. It is also low risk as it is very inexpensive - and your imagination can go wild!