Formal dress make-over

For a long time I've thought that I would like to find used formal dresses at thrift stores and such for good prices, fix them up and then sell them. Well, the other day I got my brother for escort and headed down the road to a fairly new little thrift store. They've had formal dresses at different times and I just hoped that they would have have a good one this time. They did! I pulled a simple, light silvery-blue, princess-style dress off the rack. It was the perfect style, especially for a first try. The only thing left to check was the price. Have you ever gone to the store and come home feeling like you hit the jackpot? That's about how I felt. The dress was about $5!!!!!!
I came home and it hung in the sewing room for a few days until Saturday when I was able to go to Hobby Lobby to look for fabric (Joanns' temporary store right now is small and doesn't have near the selection they used to). I came away with 2 1/2 yards of pretty navy material for just over $4! Needless to say, I was excited! I had bought a dress and fabric to go with it for just under $10!!! :)
Yesterday afternoon I got down to work. Here's a picture of it before I did anything.



Notice how much it's dragging on the ground. When this picture was taken we had gotten home from church a while before and I was still wearing my 1 1/2- to 2-inch heels. I ended up taking a good 4 1/2 inches off the hem.

My idea was to make a short bolero, sash and then bunch up the skirt with some roses, showing a contrasting underskirt. Here's the bottom of the skirt (though in this picture you can't really see the underskirt). I was going to just do navy roses but then thought that some of the light blue (that I'd cut from the bottom of the skirt) might add a good touch. Right now I'm debating whether to redo them so they're smaller or just leave them. Any input would be great. :) Abbie says they could be a bit smaller, Daniel says they're good, and my Aunt Tammy says they're perfect. What do you think? :)


And here it is!! The finished project. This was fun to play with and I think I'll definitely keep my eyes open for good deals on formal dresses from now on. :)