One day while strolling through the kids' clothing section at Target I saw this dress...
This adorable little sweater dress cost $15. Not a fortune, but more than I wanted to spend at the time. Besides, the dress is so simple that my first thought was "I bet I could make that."
Later that day I had a brief flash of brilliance. I found this t-shirt hanging in my closet...
It was light brown and had a similar gathering along the neckline as the little sweater dress. The idea was that I could refashion it into a dress for Bailey that would look pretty darn close to the sweater dress in Target. I hadn't worn the shirt in a good while, so I was willing to sacrifice it for the sake of preschool fashion.
My plan was to keep the original neckline, hemline, and sleeves so those parts would look "finished." Using one of Bailey's summer dresses as a guide, I cut the t-shirt up each side the entire length of the shirt, removing the sleeves. I carefully trimmed the excess material from each sleeve and set them aside to use later. Then I adjusted the neckline and length of the dress by sewing a new shoulder seam. I reattached the sleeves, then sewed down each side of the dress and it was finished!
It's not exactly the same as the sweater dress from Target, but it's still cute. And it was free...bonus! I experimented with putting elastic in the sleeves, but then decided against it. The pink flower is actually a hair clip that I just clipped on for the photo. I need to make a pink fabric flower pin using this tutorial so the flower can be removed before washing.
Someone with more experience sewing clothing probably could have finished this in a half hour. It took me nearly all day...yet another reason why I wouldn't last a day on Project Runway. Sewing clothes (especially those made of stretchy t-shirt material) is so much harder than sewing quilts! All in all I am pretty satisfied with it, although next time I will probably just buy the Target dress. My little supermodel loves it, so that makes me happy! :)
wow, that is very cute. It's so much fun when you find a new use for things in your closet!
ReplyDeleteI think it turned out darling! I bet it would take me half the day too! I love the color and it is awesome when you can use what you have! I have a party going on over at my blog that is dedicated to using your craft stash items. The link is open for most of October and I would love to have you join! Here is the link if you are interested: http://mylilpumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/document.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this adorable dress at the Stache Party! I hope you'll come back next month to link up!
ReplyDeleteStephanie
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