Dress Refashion (Tutorial)

What to do when a dear friend gives you a dress that's not quite your style...or size, or...anywhere near your size?

Like I did with this ginormous (apparently that really is a word now because my spell checker doesn't catch it. Amazing.) jumper that was given to me recently. I turned it into this lovely little sundress with a ruffled neckline. 

It's so breezy and spring-like that I do believe it brought the sun out from our super cold and rainy spring  all by itself!

(P.S. I just had to fit this in somewhere-these white shoes that I've been wearing the last few posts were only $.99 at Ross!! How amazing is that? I love discount stores.)

OK, back to the dress. 

I wore it to church after I made it and I must have been complimented by half the people there! If they only knew, hm? :o) That's the great thing about sewing, it's like having a magic wardrobe wand in your pocket.

I see dresses like this all the time at the thrift store, I wish I'd thought to refashion one before! You might even have something like this in your closet right now! These 90's prints are back like crazy, they just need a little loving update. :O)

Do you have a dress sitting in your closet to re-work? If not, hit the thrift store! There are tons there waiting to be rescued.

Here's the how-to:

• Start with a long sheath dress. If your dress is too big, like mine was, you'll want to take in the sides. Just turn your dress inside-out and sew down the sides, following the original shape of the dress.

• Then you'll want to try on the dress and find the right hem length for you. Add an inch or two to that, and cut off the excess evenly.

• Use the part you trimmed off to cut a 4" strip, 1.5-2x your neckline measurement. Be sure to use the hemmed edge so you don't have to hem your ruffle. 

• Serge or zig-zag the raw edge of your 4" strip, hem the two ends and then gather it into a ruffle. Pin your ruffle to your neckline (wrong side of ruffle should face right side of dress) and sew on!

Isn't that an easy refashion?

And what a dramatic difference!

I hope that gets your mind reeling of fun things to alter. Once you get started, it's hard to stop!

Happy refashioning!

Love,

-Disney