A sewing project

A number of weeks ago, Ian and I went over to the States and I did some shopping at a second-hand store. I think I could have spent hours in there. You know how it's usually hit or miss with these things, sometimes you find nothing, sometimes you could go away with a ton of things? Anyways, I found three dresses that I thought were pretty good deals. The following dress is Banana Republic, and I paid $3 I think. Granted, it's a little out-dated, and a bit too big...

But I didn't really want it for a dress anyways. I thought it would have made a great skirt, particularly for in the fall. I cut the dress into two pieces (a tank-top and a skirt), brought the skirt in about two or three inches, and put an elastic in the waist. I was going to keep the top for a tank-top, but just didn't like it, so I'm keeping it for scrap material... I'm sure it will go to good use in some other project. So it's seen here with a plain black tank top.

Also, it said "dry-clean only" and I never really bother with that. Sometimes I'll hand wash things, or wash them on delicate, and if it says to dry-clean, I definitly don't put it in the dryer. Usually it's not a problem. However, in this case, the yellowish coloured lines were actually gold (as in sparkly!) when I bought the dress, but it apparently washed off. I still think it looks okay. What do you think?

Please forgive the dust on the mirror in the following picture! We've been doing some sanding and painting again, and the regular house-work is getting away from me - I can't be bothered to clean it if I know I'm just going to be spreading more dust around!

Not bad for $3 and maybe an hour of sewing I think...