Castaway to Couture - What should I make?

On Monday, whilst out having a girls op shopping day with my grandma and her best friend, I learned about an awesome refashioning competition the Australian Sewing Guild is hosting, in conjunction with Red Cross op shops, that is called Castaway to Couture.

They had a sale of summer stock, fill a bag for $6.  So we all grabbed a few items, grandma and her friend got a skirt each, and a dress for her friend's grandaughter,  I got myself a cute set of silky pyjamas with blue birds on them, and this:

A black formal dress, with loads of fabric, beaded lace, boning and a zip to reuse. Plus it just happens to be (almost) my size!  Its a bit tight at the hips and quite loose at the waist, but it's not my style so I wouldn't wear it even if it fit perfectly.

As soon as I got around to taking these photos, I took to it with the seam ripper. The whole dress is lined, and the bodice also has another layer of white fabric attached to the lining on the inside. Unfortunately, the beading is applied to the lace and the outer fabric together, so I wont be able to unpick the lace without the beads and sequins going everywhere. I still haven't decided if it will be worth the effort to reapply all the beading myself or not.

I've had a bit of a scribble for ideas of what to refashion the dress into. Naturally, I mostly came up with 1950's style dresses. As I want to make it look like a completely different garment, I'm toying with the idea of making pants or a (formal?) playsuit, but as I want it to be a garment that I will get wear out of again, a 50's dress is probably going to be the best option.

Anyone have any idea of what they think I should make from this dress?

For more info on this competition, head to the Australian Sewing Guild Website

Dixie O'Dare

PS My Macarons came second (out of 3) at the group competition yesterday, but our branch got a few firsts, seconds and thirds all up!