80's does 40's

I prepared a bunch of clothes before moving, including some underpants from B6031 (these will remain unblogged) and this rayon number:

I picked it up for a fiver at a thrift in Myrtle Creek, hence my parents' house in the background. I just removed the shoulder pads and the center panel, overlapped the center sides by 1/4 inch, and hand stitched them together. Then I took some fullness out of the shoulder and shortened the hem.

But that's not the important news; I'm officially a college graduate.

Now I don't know what to do with myself

I've been wanting to try new embellishment techniques, so I've started stenciling a collection based on "Ya no Sé Qué Hacer Conmigo" by El Cuarteto de Nos. 

Here's my representation of "Ya tuve que ir obligado a misa":

Church of Saint Margarita summer camp 2013

I stenciled the letters and traced and painted the chalice onto a thrifted tee.

Accidental Ralph Lauren

I bought two nearly identical dresses when I was visiting family in Oregon, but only photographed one.

I did my standard removal of shoulder pads and sleeves, and hemming.

 Seriously!?

The downstairs neighbor says the white dress is Ralph Lauren. Oops. In my defense, it was super fugly. She also brought me her matching pillowcase (!) to make a bolero.

I finished something!

Before

After:

The back waist is shirred, so I only needed to open up the bust. I changed the angle at which the surplice front wraps in order to do so. I think the skirt is still too long. My friend thinks I should leave it, but is probably just trying to get out of pinning my hems. Thoughts?

Octopodes