from slinky skirt to Rapunzel-inspired dress

I have two daughters under the age of 5.  Disney princesses are big around here.  I love the way my oldest daughter loves to fully embody characters, acting out favorite scenes in movies, and belting out songs.  Naturally, she loves to dress the part.  I don't love the ridiculous prices of princess dresses, especially since the cheap fabric often loses its elasticity and pills up or the way the seams often fall out.  I also am trying to be conscious of how much I allow my kids to be branded.  I would like them to be content with what they have and not get used to having what marketers tell them they need.  I try to repurpose and use up scraps as much as possible.  My daughter got really into Tangled last year, and I knew that she'd love a dress to match the long golden locks she was blessed with.  

I started with a plum skirt that I haven't worn in years.  A skirt that hits below my knees will be a long dress on her.  

I had a remnant of a sheer white fabric with embroidered pink flowers on it that I used as an overlay for the dress.  I laid out the skirt and wrapped the printed fabric around it, folding and draping as needed to achieve the look I was going for.

After I had the fabric laid out how I wanted it, I cut and hemmed it along the two sides in the front and, eventually, on the bottom of the dress.

I pinned the overlay fabric to the skirt in a lot of places so that it stayed right where I wanted it while I did the hemming.

Then I cut out armholes, using the scraps to make capped sleeves.  

I put in an elastic casing so that the dress would have a defined waist and be easy to put on for a 4 year-old and comfortable to wear.  

I sewed little loops to the bodice of the dress and threaded ribbon through them to tie a bow at the top.  The ribbon is functional and helps the dress to fit my 4 year-old and her very petite 2 year-old sister.

I know that she won't believe in fairy tales forever, so I'm happy to help her live inside of them for a little while.

from someone else's scraps to a 1st day of school dress...

My oldest daughter had her first day of pre-k this week, and I whipped up a new dress for her the night before.  We're in LA, and our summer heat is just getting started.  A sundress seemed most appropriate.  Plus, she LOVES them.  I am always shocked when I make something for her in total secrecy and it ends up fitting (I do use clothes that have a similar fit as a guide when cutting fabric, and she still has a board straight little girl body...)!  

I have been wanting to make a dress for her out of the bottom fabric for a couple of months.  I got both fabrics from a very special source who gives me lots of amazing samples and scraps that she no longer has use for.  I kind of think this might have been a pillow case originally from the way that big hem was done...and, it had a tag inside.  I love repurposing things that already have usable hems!!

I made a casing for the straps to go through so that they could be adjustable.  

I love the circles and dots on the bottom.  

She was very excited to put it on for her first day of school and even was willing to pose for the camera!

There goes my big girl.  

from old-fashioned slip to belted skirt

Five or six years ago, I found a old-fashioned slip at an antique shop in Harbor County, Michigan (I think it was in Three Oaks).  I love that part of Michigan.  It's only about an hour or so from Chicago.  The beaches are beautiful with crystal clear (salt free!) water.  Besides the beach, there are great restaurants, pretty places to bike ride, and antique shops.  That's pretty much it, so it's very relaxing.  I live in LA, and I'd take the beaches of Michigan any day over what we have here.  Any way, I bought what I think was some kind of antique slip for $10.

I used to wear it with a belt around the waist and cowboy boots, and I loved it!  It started getting kind of scroungy looking around the neckline, though, so I decided to turn it into a skirt.

I chopped of the torso and folded over and stitched the top of the the skirt part.  I also saved the in-tact parts of the neckline by cutting it into panels to make belt loops.  

I also made a belt out of a wide strip that I cut off of a cotton-linen blend pair of pants that I shortened.  I trimmed the edges of the belt with more of the lacy detail from the dress. 

 I hardly had anything left over when I was finished!

from ladies sundress to little girl skirt, top, and sundress

I have a lot of clothes that I bought for my pregnant body that weren't technically maternity, but I still can't bring myself to wear them in my post-natal life.  Pregnant women can get away with wearing things that the rest of us can't.  They're so cute, and we give them a break since they're carrying around a 20 pound bowling ball under their skin.  

I forgot to take pictures of the dress before I cut it up, but it basically looked just like this except much bigger and with a wide ruffle at the bottom.  I cut off the bottom, took in the sides, and moved the straps to make a sundress for my oldest daughter.  She's already grown out of it (she's like a weed lately), so my 20 month-old daughter is wearing it now.  

My older daughter loves to be girly, so she'd much rather wear a flowy top like this than a t-shirt.  I made it with half of the bottom of the dress.  I shaped armholes, made a casing for straps that tie on one shoulder, and closed up the side that was still open.

  I love refashioning because I can save so much time by using details that are already in place, seams, ruffles, hems, etc.

I don't have a serger, but whoever made the original dress did.

I also made a skirt out of the bottom of the dress.  I made a casing and shimmied elastic through it for an easy I-can-do-it-by-myself fit. 

Here is the mini-collection I made from a ladies sundress.  The girls love to wear matching clothes.  I just have to make sure that my older daughter doesn't wear the skirt and shirt at the same time.  It's a bit much.