Upcycled Bridesmaid Dress ~ An Uptown/Downtown Dress Pattern Hack

The next Easter dress I made cost me absolutely NOTHING to make! Sweet!

Does anyone else save old bridesmaid dresses? I am pretty sure I am not the only one. I mean, you spend a ridiculous amount of money on them so it seems a shame to throw them in the donation bin. Even if you HATED the dress! (Sorry, Sis!) It wasn't an UGLY dress. It just wasn't flattering on me. (I have wide ribs.) Then, they ordered the wrong size and my other sister and I got in a big fight when she made a joke about mine not fitting. I really just hated everything about this dress. So, naturally, I hung it in my closet for 6+ years where I could see it every day.

Well, now it is not in my closet. Now, it looks like this:

The rest of it has been transformed to create several of this years' Easter dresses including this one.

The bottom of the dress is made from the top two layers of the bottom of the bridesmaid dress. The sash is made using the strap from one side. The hardest part of making this dress was cutting the slippery, chiffon fabric to make it straight. The full skirt with lightweight fabrics makes for lovely twirling, though. The twirl factor is always appreciated by the girls.

Isabelle drew me a picture of the dress she wanted. The sleeves were such an issue of contention between us. I didn't want to make long, 3/4 length sleeves from sheer lace. I really don't like to do sleeves. I ended up making the top out of some stretch lace from a friend and an old white T shirt. 

I used the

Uptown Downtown dress pattern

 to create the bodice.

It was actually very easy!

 The pattern is on sale right now. I know, I usually talk about how I hate patterns, but

this one

has so many variations and it is so versatile that it is worth it. I am not being compensated in any way for this endorsement.

Directions were included for a lace overlay version, which is mostly what I used. I just altered it to let the sleeves unlined. I hemmed the sleeves by hand sewing them. 

There was no hemming required around the neckline because of the lining.

The trick to this dress was attaching the bodice to the skirt. I wanted to maintain the stretch of the fabrics so that it would easily slip over her head. So, I got some 1" elastic from my stash, sewed it in a loop and made Isabelle try the loop on to be sure the elastic would stretch enough to get the dress on. Then, I sewed each piece -top and bottom- to the elastic. Here is what the inside of the dress looks like.

One of the shoulder straps from the bridesmaid dress was converted to a sash to tie around the waist. 

Now I have one less bridesmaid dress in my closet and my daughter has a lovely dress! Win win! 

I used more of the bridesmaid dress on the next Easter dress I made, but we haven't had a "real" photo shoot yet. Right now I am super busy canning tomatoes and chasing the last bit of summer. So, when I get around to it I will show you that one, too. :)

Doll Sewing

I think I just about have my toddler put to sleep here. But, I am just going to hold her for awhile to make sure. It sure is hard to get her to take regular naps with all of her sisters home for the summer.  Eventually she just crashes. About 5 second before I started typing I felt her head go limp against my arm. She is pretty snuggly right now. :)

Anyway, when I was on a blogging break, I did a lot of doll sewing. The girls had so many projects waiting for me to do and as soon as I closed the shop I was expected to jump on it!

This outfit was a prototype for THIS dress and the leggings were made from a thrifted T shirt. (Hannah had a pair of leggings made with the rest of the shirt and these were the scraps.)

This dress was made from two different shirts using the Salina Dress pattern and I even attempted a flat felled seam in the front. I was pretty proud of how crisp that turned out! I also changed it to a slight high-low hem to use the original shirt.

My 9yo, Isabelle, finally got her new apron- I will have to show you that sometime- and I made a matching apron for her doll!

My niece got an apron and oven mitts for her doll, too. I used THIS pattern.

Isabelle made herself a nightgown last year with this flannel she chose. The doll dress was half finished on my sewing table for a long time and I just gave up and finished it for her. Procrastination might be an inherited trait. ;) It is just a peasant dress with a ruffle on the bottom.

She really does like to help me sew. She helped quite a bit with this assortment of doll clothes for charity. The Oliver & S Popover dress was an easy one! I extend the top up an inch or so and just use bias tape instead of adding a yoke. I like to sew in a bit of lace in the front. Isabelle likes to sew the side seams.

I also made some Twirly Lace dresses. That really is an easy pattern!

My 2yo niece got a doll diaper bag set for her birthday. The wipes are just squares of flannel in a tissue cozy. Isabelle sewed that, too.

Now, the big project I am working on right now- well, one of them- is bedding for my 7yo's doll bunk bed. It was her Christmas gift, and part of that included choosing the fabric for the bedding. Worst fabric shopping trip ever. Honestly, that is saying a lot with my girls' track record lately. I made the sheets and pillowcases, but now I am working on quilts. I couldn't just go with simple. It will take awhile.

Well, noisy sisters ended that nap! Ugh. I was done with the post, so at least it was good timing.

I think that catches us up on the doll sewing things around here. I love seeing what other people make, so I hope this may be inspiring to others. Maybe it will give you some ideas for sewing with kids. Even noisy big sisters.

Doll Diapers and Dresses

Today I have a very special guest post. This summer the girls and I have been doing a lot of craft projects. I am trying to keep them busy so that they don't find their own ways to entertain themselves. As I mentioned before, one of my tactics for making my daughters dread Joann's Fabric Store less is to allow them to choose a fat quarter when they are on sale. My daughter, Halley, and I used some of them to make doll diapers and dresses. I let her use my camera to photograph them and now she is going to tell you a little more about them while I bake cupcakes with her sister and make lunch...

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Hi, I'm Halley! My mom and I made dresses and diapers for my Baby Alive doll, Mandy Grace. The outside of the diapers are made out of fat quarters from Joann's Fabric Store. The inside is made of flannel scraps.We used velcro to attach the flaps to the front of the diaper, and a little strip of elastic in the back so they don't fall off of the doll. 

Here are all of the diapers we made.

Here is the  reversible dress, along with the matching diaper we made out the leftover fabric. We used a tiny bit of other fabric to cut out a little heart and sew on. We also used a little bias tape leftover from my Sunrise Dress.

Here  is the other side of the reversible dress  made out of the same fabric as the heart on the other side of this dress.

We also made a Reversible criss-cross dress that matches two of the diapers we made. The pattern was no longer available. They did have picture of the pattern, though! Unfortunately it was taken at a weird angle. So my mom drew a picture of the pattern. It worked, but unfortunately it was a little too big for Mandy.

Here is the other side. We didn't use velcro, instead we used snaps. Let's just say my mom isn't too experienced with snaps. She had to rip them out a couple of times.

Well, that about sums it up.Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first ever post!

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Thank you, Halley! Yes, she is brutally honest. ;) I did make some adjustments to my pattern and I have it all worked out now, so I will probably make more of the criss-cross dresses.