Last June I told you about the $19 Armani jacket that I snatched from my local thrift store. Well, I didn’t have the back altered, but look what a difference it made to have the sleeves shortened and tapered! When you’re busty and short like me, you don’t need any extra fabric anywhere. Before these changes, I thought I’d be swapping this jacket at the Busty Clothing Swap, but now it’s staying with me. (By the way, how do you like my NEW GLASSES? Mr. Campbell chose them for me, and I love them. I have more thoughts to share about this overlooked accessory in an upcoming post.)

Next up is my $17 Suzi Chen dress. I took commenter Judy’s suggestion and had the lumpy zipper entirely removed. Now I simply slip the dress over my head. And doesn’t the shorter hem make it look less frumpy?

I’m cheating a little bit by wearing my new blue suede shoes from Easy Spirit. I got them yesterday after winning a $50 Easy Spirit gift card on Saturday and returning this pair that I couldn’t fall in love with. Interestingly, I now have four blue dresses in my closet, so I could easily justify this purchase. No matter what colors I think I want to add to my closet, sometimes I just have to work with whatever colors look good on me that will fit my bust. And this season, I’m finding that everything blue fits me! I’ll be sharing my other two new blue dresses soon.

By the way, I’m wearing my new KrisLine bra under this dress today. I bought it when I was in Florida two weeks ago, and I plan to review it and the boutique where I bought it here tomorrow.

Finally, I should tell you how much these alterations cost: $45 for the jacket and $40 for the dress. Given my low original payment and the cost per wear that I expect to get out of this jacket and dress, I think it was worth it, but it demonstrates once again the tailoring tradeoffs that busty women must calculate when making clothing purchases.