Paisley Skirt to sundress, #39

Found this lovely orange and dark red skirt that I could not turn down. Too big of course. I thought about what I wanted to do with it and one day when I put it on it hit me... easy dress.

Similar to the red dress I just refashioned using elastic

I decided I would just add elastic to the first tier of the skirt, leave the zipper. And wear as a dress! Done. Easy refashion. Very boho sort of feel....

I did have to hem the lining some but that is about the sewing I did. I did not add the elastic to the lining, only the skirt. But the recap. A really easy refashion.

cheers,
Lauren

Indian Skirt Refashion, Refashion #22 butterick 5599

I am so excited this dress is complete. It was a LOT of work. A LOT of work.

First I started off with this skirt. Of course it was too big but look how lovely it is.... Paisleys, ahhh. It had some issues with fraying at the bottom with the hem that someone attempted to fix but didn't work. I decided to combine it with some blue fabric and make this lovely dress from Butterick, 5599.

Little did I know how much sewing was going to be involved. There were over 20 pattern pieces. Combined with interfacing and lining. The grand total was 93, yes people 93 pieces!!!!!

Sewing this was crazy. After I joined the pieces, I ironed the seam open. Then did another seam on both sides of the joining seam. The easiest way to do this was the using my clear open toe foot. But I got my best seams with my regular foot. So you guessed it, I had to switch between my sewing feet after each part. I did learn that I would join a piece, do the other mirror side and then press, sew, sew. Repeat, repeat, repeat......

My beef with the instructions and pattern pieces with Butterick is they did NOT label some of the pieces on what side was for what. Like this side is the center back, center, side seam, etc. The pictures were not the best. So on top of all the sewing I had to pull out a lot of seams with my seam ripper. Sigh.  Then when I got the lining complete (which was a mirror image of the dress bodice) and the zipper went in I realized that there was a huge gap in the top of the dress. It was not the placement of the straps. 

The dress went into the corner while I pondered the fit issue. I realized I needed to take in the middle portion of the bodice in order to keep things covered. Ahem... I wound up taking in 2 inches in the middle of the bodice. Then repositioned the straps. OMG I was done. Hem. Complete. 

It was worth it, I mean the dress has pockets! 

Heyyyy..... the sides even match up!

And the back isn't bad either. It was a lot of work to make sure I stayed on 

Recap... I love this dress.

Now I have sworn off this pattern. It was a lot of work. I will probably never sew it again. Things were confusing. I have gotten the OMG this dress is fabulous, would you consider making me one? The answer is NO! Right now I am scarred from this pattern it would take a lot of money to sew this for you. A LOT!!!!

I am happy it is over and happy this dress is done. And I shall wear it proud!! There were totally blood, sweat, and tears shed for this dress. But it is lovely.

Cheers,
Lauren

Skirt to Dress #2

Here is another refashion I did using a very large skirt.



Actually it is a 3XL!! Another wonderful buy from the local thrift store for $0.99. I loved the fabric and the bias strip edging.

I decided to turn it into a dress again! I started with trying this skirt on inside out and like how I would wear it as a dress. I pinned it where it would need to be taken in (and a lot of fabric might I add!!)


I then laid it down and went straight down the skirt with some pins.

Then I sewed and cut off the excess fabric.

Next I wanted to add a pinch in the middle of the dress to make it less square. So I sewed on a piece of elastic to the center (while I was stretching it out).



Next I made yet again another tube to create a belt for this dress. (longest part of the refashion!) I went for an elastic, stretchy belt for the dress. No ties.




Here's the final product. Love it! :)




Oh and btw I kept the zipper in the skirt. I just made sure I did not sew it out of the dress!

Yay that was a fun and quick project to break up paper reviewing in the lab! Hopefully papers will go out soon! :) Oh and I am using the rest of the fabric to make rosettes and probably turn it into a necklace. :)

Cheers,
Lauren