Sweet Summer Dress

I made a dress today! I bought this super-soft purple knit fabric months ago--around Christmas I think? and had yet to do anything with it. I had been doing some mental fashion designing for a few days now and this is what I came up with. 

I used a tank top as a template, folded it in half, placed it on my fabric and drew a dress template with a white crayon in an A-line fashion (I am really up on the latest sewing tools here). The dress is just a back and a front with self-fabric binding at the neck and around the sleeve to make the straps. 

I added a self-fabric belt to pull it all together. I love how it looks. It is so soft, drapes well and flows beautifully. 

It is always fun to design a dress and bring it to life in one afternoon. Such a sweet addition to my summer wardrobe!

The Birthday Twofer Dress!

Yesterday was my 27th birthday! I have realized that as an adult, it is up to me to make my birthday special so I planned a dinner out, picked a movie to watch after the kiddos went to bed ("The King's Speech" VERY good btw!) and made myself a new dress!

 Paired with cute round-toed brown pumps, this little dress and I were ready to take on my birthday. I had a great day!

How to Sew a Twofer dress: Take 3

My previous two posts on "How to sew a Twofer Dress" have generated the most google hits in my blog history. WOW! Who would have thought? I have been wanting to make some new twofer dresses for a while a-a-a-a-n-d.....

Here is my latest creation! I absolutely love it! I randomly stumbled across this awesome tutorial  by Maybe Matilda a few weeks ago and have been so excited to make a new dress for myself. PLUS, I got a new sewing machine for my birthday/graduation/anniversary present (according my to my husband!). It is a Janome 1000 Heavy Duty machine. 

And this twofer dress was its maiden project. It went off without a hitch! I didn't have to pull out my seam ripper once! :o (Amazing, truly!). 

 Maybe Matilda's tutorial is so easy to follow but I will give you the general breakdown of what I did. The skirt is just a rectangle that has in-seam pockets (I actually sewed them a little too low...oh well). I followed the genius advice of Maybe Matilda and only gathered the fabric in the front and back--not on the sides, thus reducing fullness in the hips. A BIG plus in my book as I am, um, curvy, shall we say. 

The only thing I changed about this dress was the waist tie. I LOVE the bow that the original has but my material was too bulky to tie in a nice bow. (in Aaron's words: "I hate the bow" And I had to agree). So I looped the long sash around my waist twice and tied it in a nice neat knot in the front. Perfect!!

I love the high waisted look! It is so slimming and hides my belly left over from pregnancy (or that's what I keep telling myself...it really just just my excuse because I don't exercise like I should!)

I adore the final result and the best part is...this little number only took me about 2 hours to complete--including hand sewing the hem. 

Go ahead! Make a twofer dress for yourself. 

And stay tuned for more twofer creations from your truly in the near future. :) 

Goodwill Refashion: Black Sweater Dress

Since Aaron was skiing this afternoon, I decided to take advantage of a quiet afternoon to myself and refashion the other dress I got from Goodwill about a week ago. 

BEFORE

What I loved: I liked the material on this dress. It is a sweater like material but not too thick. Plus, it has a nice drape. The other upside to this dress is it is HUGE. Yep, big is good for refashioning--there is plenty of material to work with that way. And you can't beat the $3.50 price tag. 

What I hated: Pretty much everything about the shape. Let's face it: this dress is a big, black rectangle. Who would look good in this dress in this condition? No one! 

Here is how I transformed this "blah" black dress: 

 I laid a dress on top with the length that I liked and cut the dress to a new length

 I wanted 3/4 length sleeves so I laid a shirt over the dress to give me an idea of where to cut

 I also wanted to cut a new neckline: I pinned this neckline of the sample shirt to the dress. 

 Then I lifted the shirt and drew around the pin-line with chalk

 Ta-da! a pattern to cut from!

 I needed to tighten up the sleeves and sides of the dress. I measured 1 1/4 inch with my seam gage around the sleeves and about 2 inches around the body of the dress

 After sewing my new seams, (and trying on the dress to make sure it was ok) I cut off the excess. 

 Next I sewed double hems for the sleeves and hem. I think the double hem looks a little more professional.

 I wanted to sew a cowl neck on the dress. I measured the neckline of the dress (29inches) and used the material I cut off the bottom  for the cowl neck. I made it 8 inches wide (but I probably could have gone wider)

 I stuck the collar into the dress, then pinned and sewed

 After sewing and pulled out

 Then I folded the cowl over and sewed it down. After this, I sewed a belt from the rest of the skirt I cut off. No pic of this, sorry. 

AFTER

 So, I completely stink at taking pictures of myself. Here is my best shot of the "after."

 I love it!! New shorter hemline, modern sleeve length, and fun cowl neck. The belt is tied at my natural waistline (not really visible in this picture).

 New neckline! (So much better than the mock turtleneck of the original!)

I love how it turned out and I can't wait to wear this to work next week! 

Goodwill Refashion: Gray Dress

For the past 6-7 months or so, I have followed New Dress A Day, a blog where this wonderfully creative girl (lady? woman?) refashioned an outfit a day for one year. She just recently finished her one-year adventure and I have really missed her daily updates (she still posts her projects, just not every day).

That blog, and others, inspired me to do some Goodwill refashioning of my own. I love new clothes but don't have a lot of money to spend. At the mall, I am lucky if I can get even ONE outfit (or piece of clothing!) for $20.

Well, yesterday I spent some quality time at Goodwill searching for diamonds in the rough--aka clothes that have the potential to be amazing with a few snips and stitches.

Here is my first refashion attempt on a dress.

BEFORE

(BTW, this is a HORRID picture of me. I hate it! But I accidentally deleted the "good" picture of the "before" dress)

What I loved: I paid $3.50 for this little number. I loved the material (it is a subtle houndstooth pattern. If you click on the picture to enlarge you can probably see it) and the cute sleeves. I also liked the empire waist (it flows AWAY from the body...a good thing for any woman who has had a kid or two)

What I hated: the length = Mid-calf. UG. Horrible length for anyone, in my opinion. Even worse for someone who is short like me. I also despised the neckline. Gag. Literally. 

AFTER

I shortened the dress to my knees and sewed a new hem. I also had to sew shut the slit in the back of the dress. I also lowered the neckline. That took some um....creativity. My first attempt didn't work but I think it looks good now. Still modest but the dress doesn't look like it is choking me anymore.

I am wearing some black heels (which my brother did not get into the pic...oh well!) but I think with some sheer black stockings, black heels, and these pearls, this dress will be awesome for work, church, or a date night (whenever that may happen! HA!)

Not bad for $3.50 + two hours, huh?

Refashioned Christmas Dresses

I couldn't post these before Christmas because they were presents for my two nieces, Charlotte and Naomi. I love how these little dresses turned out! I bought shirts from Target and then attached a skirt. Instead of gathering the waist, I used large pleats. The material for the skirt was from a dress I got at Goodwill for $3.50! The dress had a very full skirt so the front of the skirt became Charlotte's skirt and the back became Naomi's. I love the material! Plus I used the original hem from the dress so attaching the skirt was the only sewing I had to do for these little dresses. Can't want to see a picture of the girls in them! (hint, hint, Brittany!)

The TINY two-fer dress

Here is my version of a TINY two-fer dress. I made it out of a 0-3 month onesie and a t-shirt. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. It is so sweet and so tiny! My favorite part is the bloomers--ruffle butt! AWWW! I hope Chelsea and my new little niece love them!

Before: Cute little orange and white striped onesie

Before: T-shirt that ended up in our luggage when we came home from camp (weird, but free material for me!!!)

AFTER! Sweet little two-fer dress with bloomers!

The bloomers have elastic to hold them up and....

RUFFLES!! AHH! So, so cute! 

The "Little" Two-fer dress

My sister Chelsea is expecting her first baby in October--a GIRL! The first one in the family (there are 5 grandsons right now). I wanted to make her some clothes so here are my attempts at "refashioning" for a baby. I love how this outfit turned out!

The top "before"--one of the boys' onesies (I used the bottom to make a pair of underwear for the boys)

The bottom "before"--a skirt that wasn't quite my style

AFTER! Isn't it cute? It will probably fit 9-12 months

I "feminized" the sleeves a bit by shortening them and adding a  cuff made out of the skirt material

Greek Goddess Dress

Are you ready? I made another dress to feed my growing addiction. Or fill my closet, either one. :) I found a tutorial online that I wanted to try called "Most Flattering Shirt Dress." And it was flattering--on the model who sewed it online. Super cute on her. On me? not so much. It looked like a frump bag. I was very disappointed/grumpy.

So I threw it on the ironing board for the night and the next day, since I didn't want to waste the super pretty/soft/inexpensive (I got the material for 6.50 on the clearance rack at Joann's!) material, I decided to cut it up and try to revamp the dress. I ended up cutting off the neck, sleeves, and ripping out the side seems down to the elastic. Then I gathered up the neck and sewed a casing around it. The bodice ended up looking very Greek--you know, a bit clingy/drape-y around the bust. Pretty! The shrring at the waist keeps the dress super comfy and I don't need to add another zipper (thank GOD!) So, all in all, the dress turned out great. I am glad I didn't give up after the first (awful) attempt. I love it and am going to wear it too playgroup pool party tomorrow. Enjoy the pics!

Coffee Date Dress

I made a new dress! Seriously, I have an addiction. I really love sewing right now and I really love clothes SO...the more dresses the merrier!

I found this FREE pattern online! Yes, FREE! You can't beat that! It is called the Coffee Date Dress. I printed off the pattern, taped all the pieces together and then cut out the pattern.

I actually revamped a botched twofer dress that was just NOT coming together. I made the top out of a men's button down short sleeve shirt. Then I altered the skirt pattern to work with the one I had already made. The whole dress came together really quickly. I made it over 2 days and wore it to church on Sunday.

The hardest part was installing the invisible zipper. GAH! I kept messing up. It really wasn't THAT hard to instal if I hadn't have sewn it in backwards, then once with the dress twisted (don't ask me how I accomplished THAT one), sewn over the zipper teeth, and who knows what else. I spent a lot of "quality" time with my ripper and reminding myself that I don't use foul language--and that this WAS the first zipper I installed. I'm sure the next one will take 15 minutes--instead of 2.5 hours.

If you want the pattern, click here Just scroll down a bit. This pattern is courtesy of The Selfish Seamstress.

If you want a good tutorial on how to install an invisible zipper, click here

Enjoy the pics!!!

How to sew a Twofer dress- Take 2

I made another twofer dress! I made this one a little differently and it turned out so cute! I attempted to take some pictures showing "how" I made it. Enjoy! I am loving my new outfit!

First, I cut a "pattern" out of wrapping paper. I cut pockets for this dress! The long side of the pattern is placed on the fold. Cut two, but cut the back piece about 6-8 inches wider than the front.

After sewing the side with the pocket.

The pocket opening, right side out

I sewed pleats on the front of the skirt so that it fit the front of my waist and the pockets sat on my hips

Imagine this picture horizontally. I shirred the back of the skirt so that it fit snuggly but I could still get into the dress. This actually was some trial and error. I actually had to rip out the seam from the waist to top of the pocket so I could sew about 8 rows of shirring. Then I resewed the seam from the pocket to the waist.

Next, sew the shirt to the skirt. I tried it on before I did this and marked where I wanted the skirt to sit with tailors chalk. Then I safety pinned the two pieces together and sewed. Be sure to stretch the shirred part of the skirt to fit the shirt so that it is nice and stretchy and easy to get on and off.

I sewed a sash and then hand sewed it to the dress. This took a little while but it was worth it. I ended the hand sewing where the shirring started.

Here is how the sash looks in the back. I just untie it in order to get into/ out of the dress.

The finished product!

I paired it with my boots the first time I wore it and I got a lot of compliments. I love these dresses. I have plans to make a few more for the summer.