Edit 18th March : I'm not well enough to make a dress from scratch (although I used to) so what I do these days is buy a dress that I feel I can *do* things to, and work on it from there to make what I hope is a stylish and unique original.

The below shows the original dress I bought from Ebay, and then each of the items I added to it. It was all handsewn.

I should also say that this is my first non-black dress in something like 16 years! I plan on wearing it to my birthday lunch in a couple of weeks - my friends (who have only ever seen me in black) will be .... spun out!

I've added each of the Etsy shops I got the trimmings from, in case you are interested in seeing more of the same sort of thing. I used to be an Ebay person, but in Etsy, you are not drowned in all those rotten commercial companies with their endless listings.

I got the dress from Ebay because they had the simpler dresses. The kind of dress I want in Etsy already has the trims added, and costs heaps and heaps.

This is how the original dress appeared from http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-Olive-Green-Button-Tiered-Long-Dress-1x-PLUS-3014_W0QQitemZ160412080970QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_CSA_WC_Dresses?hash=item25594e1b4a

Oh, it was way too big on me.

The darker green waistband (which is actually some very nice crochet) sat better just under my breasts as an empire waistline, rather than at my actual waist so I worked on that principal for the rest of the re-design.

I added some ribbon for a tie-back to create a empire waist just at the base of the bust :

Vintage 40's French Rayon Moire Ribbon 1 1/2 inch -Milliners Stock- Antique Sage Green - http://www.etsy.com/shop/FiniRibbon

The dress, with the tie-back tied at the back :

At the actual waistline, I added some soutache (the longest piece shown in the photo below), and also at the front of the arm holes.

Vintage Silk Soutache METALLIC EMBROIDERED Edwardian COLLAR and CUFFS from http://www.etsy.com/shop/StylishRibbons

Closeup of actual waistline :

For each circle or half circle on each piece of the soutache, I sewed on a “greasy montees chaton”, to add some sparkle.

RARE 1800s ANTIQUE GREASY SAGE SEAFOAM OPAL 2 HOLE ROSE MONTEES CHATONS SEW ONS ANTIQUE BEADS DOLL BUTTONS LOT

from Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/ALLWILDJEWELS

- THE place to get antique sequins and other small antique and vintage bits of bling. Also on Ebay.

This picture shows the crochet that came with the dress on one side of the armhole, and the soutache I added on the other side. (The montees don’t show up very well)

I trimmed the base of the dress in this ivory lace. It is decorated with transparent sequins topped by pearls :

The lace is from from my stash – I got it from Ebay at some point.

And there we go : one new dress! I've decided that I quite like the olive green. I've put some red henna through my hair lately, so it goes with that.