Re-Fashioning an Eddie Bauer Dress

I've had this dress forever in my stash.  I picked it up at Goodwill about a year ago, and have shamefully not done a thing with it.  It was too large, awkwardly long, had a few tears in the fabric, but had so much potential.  I love the color of the plaid (despite the plaids not matching), and its shape is one that's easily changeable.  It's a warm cotton/rayon blend flannel, and just screams 'winter!' to me.

The big changes I decided to make were to make the bodice fit me better, shorten the sleeves and make them fit straight, shorten the skirt to get rid of the hole, but reattach the left over fabric to keep the length past the knees.  The remaining left over fabric from the sleeves was used to create little fans between the buttons.  I used this tutorial here for the fans.  I loved the vintage button up feel of the dress, and wanted to expand on that with the little details I added.  I wanted to keep the skirt full so instead of taking it in along with the bodice, I decided to remove it, gather it, and reattach it while being careful to make sure the buttons lined up.

I have to admit I'm extremely methodical when it comes to planning out sewing projects.  This project was done in a couple of stages.  I looked at the bare bones of the dress to determine what shape I wanted to go for.  Did I want to keep it as a dress?  Emphasize the western or vintage feel?  Keep it a shirt dress, or remove that detail?  Things like that.  I then looked amongst my massive files of photographic inspiration to figure out what details I wanted to add.  Once I did that I did a basic sketch of everything, and wrote down the changes I wanted to make.  After that, I planned out which changes I'd do over the next few days.

This really worked for me because it allowed for me to pace myself instead of doing it all at once.  Sewing marathons can really be a frustrating mess after awhile, and I'm trying to avoid them.  I like having my thoughts in order so the planning sheet keeps me on track, and takes out the 'what am I doing again?' factor.  I can be pretty absent minded if I don't stay dilligent in my lists and plans.