Project Runway competition

I've mentioned in the past that I'm a huge fan of Project Runway...

Well, I participated in a Project Runway competition !

I took an existing garment from my closet & turned it into something new.

With the summer weather in the past, I took a white eyelet strapless summer sun dress from my closet. With a seam reaper I removed the zipper & separated the top from the bottom. I decided to sew my 3 year old daughter a peasant style dress in size 3T. It's the Sweet Little Dress pattern (from Leila & Ben) although I made the sleeves longer. This is the 4th dress I've sewn using that pattern... the 1st one was green, the 2nd one was repurposing a vintage pillowcase, & the 3rd one was repurposing a man's white shirt.

After I separated the pieces I ironed the fabric from the bottom part of the original dress to smooth out all the winkles in order to get the most accurate pattern pieces cut out. I also used an iron to form the elastic casing at the neckline of all of the 4 pieces (dress front, dress back, & 2 sleeves).

Now here's the really fun part (& what I really love about repurposing "using what you've got")... I was trying to figure out where & how to add the elastic on the sleeves , well this unique piece has this lovely lace trim & it's attached to the eyelet with a 3/8 inch seam which after I sewed it down made the perfect casing for the 1/4 inch elastic !

I wanted to add a splash of color, so I sewed a gold colored sash (a nice color for the fall).
So that's my upcycled garment & I only used the fabric from the bottom of the original dress. That's all it took to make size 3T, but I have to say that it was exactly enough to sew a size 3T, the size 4 pattern would not have fit on this amount of fabric. So I still have the fabric from the top of the original dress & the zipper to repurpose for a future project.
Oh, I also forgot to mention that the original dress had a lining & I did use the lining fabric to line the peasant dress, but just in the dress, not the sleeves.

summer halter top to preschooler dress tutorial

summer halter top to preschooler dress tutorial

summer is long gone... here's how you can take a summer halter top & repurpose it into a little girl's dress

what you need
:: summer halter top
:: matching sewing thread
:: 1/4" wide elastic (i used 7.5" in length)
:: safety pin
:: pins
:: sewing machine

{when i put this halter top on my 3 year old daughter, a few inches needed to be taken in at the back so that it could be worn as a dress, the following is how i did that}

on the back of the halter top fold down to the wrong side enough fabric to make a casing for the 1/4" wide elastic & sew (i folded down 7/8" & sewed at 3/8")

attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic & feed it through the casing

zig-zag stitch through the elastic & all the layers, just inside the end of the casing to secure it, do this at both ends of the casing

with girl wearing it, crisscross the long straps in the back & pin it where the straps meet.  with pins attach the straps to the back of the dress (i positioned them where i zig-zagged at the ends of the casing)

zig-zag stitch where the straps crisscross in the back

zig-zag stitch where the straps meet at the back of the dress

voila !  you've just extended the life of a summer halter top !

chloe

{back to school knitting}
Chloe is a fun stripey sweater with nice little details & it's all seamless knitting ~ oh how i love seamless knitting !!!  details about this sweater found at this Ravelry link.  since i had leftover yarn from the sweater i decided to knit legwarmers to match, using the legwarmies pattern, but using the 3 Chloe color stripes & adding the same ruffle at the bottom.
next week i plan on taking part in this.

tiny tea leaves cardi

{back to school knitting}
C calls this one her bumpy sweater (due to the softly rippled neckline), it's the tiny tea leaves cardi pattern (ravelry link). for this one i dyed natural wool yarn with 2 different colors of blue Kool-Aid so it was a surprise as i was knitting it to see how the sweater would turn out with all the variations of blue. i grabbed 2 white vintage buttons from my vintage button stash & voila it's done ! 
i will be knitting more tiny tea leaves cardis in the future

 

pink legwarmers

{back to school knitting}
C started a French speaking preschool & she will start Sunday school in October, so i wanted to knit her some back to school items... these are a pair of pink legwarmies (ravelry link here) that i knitted her during the summer some of which was at the beach... lovely yarn & simple pattern

dress with quilted bodice

August's pattern for the Carefree Clothes for Girls sew-along was the dress with quilted bodice.  for the dress i sewed, i used linen (in all different shades of brown) from my fabric stash, vintage buttons & gold embroidery floss.  the changes i made to the pattern were:  i cut off the shoulder straps & added my own attaching them with vintages buttons, the quilting on the bodice was done with only vertical stitching, & the for the lining underneath i omitted the ruffle.  fun dress !

our creative space

my daughter C turned 3 over the summer. now that her 2 big brothers are back to school full days, she's spending lots of time with me in my studio. i asked her if she'd like to sew some clothes for Baby Emma (her 14" Corolle doll from France). she picked the fabric & together we sewed a doll skirt. sitting on my lap, she was delighted to be "using" the sewing machine for the first time.



she's also been working on her first hand sewing.

PS i've been getting my internet inspiration & ideas organized at Tumblr... are you at Tumblr? if so, please let me know...

PSS i've just started this project, you'll find my photos at flickr