If you wonder why I occasionally inundate you with JCPenney items, it’s because I’ve found a hairdresser at the Queens Center Mall JCPenney who knows how to work with curly hair and only charges me $27 to wash, cut and style it. Her name is Alis, and I visit her every seven weeks. I bet if we checked the Hourglassy archives, you’d see something from JCP every seven weeks because I can’t resist browsing their women’s clothing departments while I’m there.

Last Friday, I found this dress on sale for only $16.99. The bottom of it reminds me vaguely of the pretty skirt I posted yesterday, and when I tried it on in size L, it fit!

big bust JCP dress chiffon

Unfortunately, the clear line across my short waist was not flattering. Perhaps those of you with long waists can wear this more gracefully, but I need a vertical line down my middle, either via something monochromatic, a print that continues from top to bottom, or a jacket or cardigan that bridges my top and bottom halves. This isn’t only a big bust thing, but when you have a short waist and divide your torso in such a way that you look wider, a big bust seems to add to the overall impression of width. (Astrid over at Les Gros Bonnets would say, “Who cares if you look wider?”, and I thought I’d come over to her way of looking at things until I saw myself in this dress!)

It wasn’t a total loss, though, because combined with yesterday’s post, plus thinking about Leila and sewing, I have remembered a DIY fantasy that keeps surfacing in my imagination. You know how it’s always so hard to find a dress where the top AND bottom fit in the right color and style? Well, since we can almost always find a tank top or cami that fits, why not sew a bottom to it that we like? For me, it would be something like this:

big bust target cami

plus sign

melissaesplin-istillloveyou-sewing-tulle-maxi-skirt-5 Photo from http://melissaesplin.com/2013/04/sewing-gathered-tull-skirt/%5B/caption%5D

With DIY, I could place the skirt at the most visually flattering point of my torso, which would be closer to my hips.

Leila, when you come up for air from all your packing, would you put this on your list of possible topics to cover in the months ahead? I’m still working on my sweater to end all sweaters–I’m on my millionth attempt at knitting the bottom ribbing–so I won’t be attempting this dress anytime soon, but I’d love to hear whether you’ve tried anything similar or if this post gives you ideas. And if you want to create a tulle skirt alone, in addition to Melissa Esplin’s gathered tulle skirt above, Red Ink Pen has a great tutorial, together with links to others who have made one.