My "New" Lilly Skirt

Yesterday, I was finally able to go pick up my old Lilly dress in its new form from my alterations lady. I am very excited about this because it is like getting something new, even though technically it has been sitting in my closet for the past 5 years.

The summer after my freshmen year of college (2006), Jared bought me this Lilly Pulitzer dress that I was in love with. I was spending the summer in Jensen Beach working for the Red Cross and Jared was spending his summer in the Keys. I would often get bored on the weekends and go down to West Palm Beach for some retail therapy, and I always had to stop in at my favorite Lilly store C. Orrico. Well, I had my eye on this Lilly dress for weeks and finally one weekend Jared came up to Jensen for a visit and bought me that Lilly dress. We had only been dating for like 4 months and for absolutely no reason he bought me that dress. Not much has changed over the years, Jared still knows that for any special occasion a Lilly is always the answer...or a fabulous pair of shoes. I'm not one for jewelry, I'd much rather expand my sundress collection :)

I wore the dress a couple times and every time I put it on it felt shorter and shorter. That is the ONLY thing I don't like about Lilly Pulitzer dresses, they are always too short on me. Just because I'm a size 2-4 doesn't mean I can't be 5'10". Apparently in Lilly Land, everyone who is a size 2 must be 5'5" and under. Not all of the dresses are always cut so short, but this one happened to be. So after a couple wears, I decided that this dress was way too hoochie-mama short on me and I put it in my closet.

Over the next 5 years this dress traveled with me everywhere I moved, even though I knew I probably wouldn't wear it because it was too short. It lived in my closet (never being worn) in my Tallahassee apartment, the Phi Mu house, my parent's house in Jax, and now my house in Jax. I knew I would probably never wear this dress again, but I just couldn't get rid of it.

I thought about selling it, giving it away to one of my friends, but I just couldn't part with it. A couple months ago, Jared and I were cleaning out our closet and I came to this dress. I didn't know what to do with it, but I knew I either needed to do something with it or get rid of it. The dress hadn't been worn in at least 4 years. That's when Jared suggested that I just have it cut up and made into a skirt. Genius.

I took the dress to the woman who altered my wedding dress...I'm not just going to let any random person cut up my Lilly. All she had to do was cut off the top of the dress and make a waist band. So after all these years, I finally get to wear my favorite Lilly again!

The finished product :)

The back

Very excited to be in my "new" Lilly skirt!