My Poppy Dress Shrank in the Wash, So I Gave It a Third Tier

Today I have a little Poppy transformation to share with you! If you’ve been following for a minute you might remember when I originally posted this dress back in April of last year, and you also might remember that it was a whole tier shorter. Well between then and now it got even shorter when it became mixed up with my husband’s laundry and went through the washer and dryer on hot. If you’ve ever worked with rayon you know that’s a huge no-no and, as would be expected, my Poppy shrunk. Quite a bit. If I was standing still the length was passable, but the minute I started moving, or god forbid, raised my arms above waist level it was bordering on obscene.

Here I was with my favorite dress no longer wearable, what is a girl to do? Well if you sew, the answer is stick another tier on the bottom and keep going like it was always supposed to be like this!

I luckily had enough of this gorgeous Floral Shade 100% ECOVERO™ Viscose crepe from Mind the Maker (color is Rosewood if you’re curious) leftover that I could cut the third tier included in the pattern, pick out the hem, and sew it on. I usually try to buy as close to the exact amount of fabric as possible to avoid unusable leftover cuts but luckily I’d purchased this fabric while the Poppy Dress pattern was still in production so I wasn’t exactly sure how much fabric it would take and for once, I’m not annoyed with myself for having extra.

I have to say I’m really surprised with how much I like this new version. I expected to miss the original dress every time I put it on but instead I feel amazing! I love how the third tier adds so much movement to the dress and I find myself swanning around and swishing my skirt. It looks super put together but honestly feels better than my current pair of pajamas and I know I absolutely need another before fall arrives.

One thing this whole repair reminded me, aside from the fact that you need to guard your rayon garments with your life, is to stop saving fabric for "the perfect project." I already thought I'd found the perfect project for this viscose, and it turned out there was a better one waiting on the other side of a laundry mishap. So from now on, if I love a fabric, I'm going to try to use it instead of holding out for the ideal pattern.