We were invited to a wedding….a fancy one at that.  Laura and I both had lovely dresses to wear but Alexis was in trouble.  Her fancy dress from October wasn’t going to work since she’s no longer seven months pregnant.  But neither would any of her pre-pregnancy wardrobe as she is not quite back to her slim, before baby figure. Shopping was definitely on our  to do list.  After some frustrating forays I ran into a sale at Macy’s.  Success!  I found a great dress.  It had good lines, nice fabric, and (triumph of triumph) it fit!  It only had one problem.  None of us liked the black jet buckle sewn into the waistband of the dress. What to do?  How do make it one-of-a-kind, eye-catching, and special?

We decided the dress would be perfect and much more interesting with a different look on the belt.  So, we cut the jet buckle off using our handy dandy wire cutters and replaced it with a sterling silver brooch made by Laura. (Click on the link to see more of Laura’s jewelry.)

Lovely black dress with jet buckle

Lovely black dress with silver brooch

This sterling silver brooch was constructed from a single piece of continuous wire specifically for this dress.  This brooch is one-of-a-kind and contrasts stunningly with this simple black dress taking it up a notch without a lot of time or reconstruction.  Best of all, she can change the look of the dress by changing the brooch making it much more versatile.

Here is the finished product.  The entire transformation took very little time and people at the wedding commented on her unique and very pretty dress.  We smile and say “Mission Accomplished”.

Alexis in the lovely black dress