on IRL Crafting: Dress-Mod Project - Part II

So the first part of this project was based off a Sweetie Bell colored paisley patterned dress which was very simply made into a draw-string skirt. This second part involved changing this very adorably-patterned pink checkered dress into something that I could fit into. As you can see, compared to the previous dress, this one had a bit of form stitched into it, which made it a little harder to fit into than the last one.

At least the people who originally made the dress (Old Navy) made it easy for me, and the form of the dress was created just by taking in some parts, rather than cutting different pieces of cloth. So using my Salvaging Tool, I took apart the dress and, unlike the previous one, more than just the bottom part was used. We'll get to how the top part was used in a little bit, but first, the bottom. The problem here was that the waist was too thin, and would not go over my hips (hard to imagine that I might have actually developed some figure since the last 8 years... or maybe I'm just fat now). In any case, re-working this dress really required some out-of-the-box thinking, and especially some in-the-chimney thinking.

Because the waistline of the dress was originally made to be thinner and then flare out at the bottom, so I decided to turn the bottom part of the dress upside down! On the original dress, the zipper was placed on the side, so when we removed that, the simple solution was to just hem those two places and make it a slit in the narrower part so it wouldn't be hard to walk. I also opened up the other side and re-hemmed it in order to make it symmetrical, and then added some adorable lace as a trim at the bottom.

As for the waistline for this new skirt, as I said, we turned it upside down, so now the top area was a little too BIG for my waist, so we had to take it in at a few points, and then add in a zipper so I can get in and out of it, without it falling off. The original dress had a slight slit in the back, and this is where we put the new zipper - I really tried to make this as simple as possible, and really take advantage of the dress' original structure. This is especially evident in what I did with the top part of the dress - I made it into a pocket!

So the top part, at first, just looks like a weird bikini-top-thing, but it was double layered initially (for comfort and/or opacity), with a cute trim at the top that held the two layers together, and also led in to the spaghetti straps of the dress. Taking advantage of the double layering, I just undid a bit of the trim, where appropriate, and then cut the top part in half, as shown. Then I sewed cut part on one of the halves which formed the last wall of a stand-alone pocket.

Then I just added some of that lace we had on the trim (using up the last of this lace that has been in our home for as long as I can remember) and VOILA - a pocket. All that was left was to attach it to the skirt itself! Also, just because I couldn't think of a way to get rid of the strap, I actually left it on because cutting it off would cause it to fray, and it's also fun to play with.

Nothing exciting about the back, so just a front view. The pocket's a little ridiculous, but I hate having skirts/pants without them, so I like it. Showed it to my dad to which he responded, "Nice... is it an apron or a tablecloth?" Thanks, Trolldad. Either way, I like it and I think it turned out quite nicely.

on IRL Crafting: Dress-Mod Project - Part I

So I bought these dresses around 8 years ago... and unfortunately they no longer fit which is strange because there's no way I could've grown in this amount of time...

Anyway, not wanting to waste the beautiful/cute fabrics that they're made of I wanted to see if I could remake them into something new that could fit. I've finished one, so far, but I'm missing a fitting zipper for the second, so I will post the finished one.

So this first dress is originally a light purple and white ... bah, I forget what this pattern is called.  But anyway. PAISLEY. I really liked it, but it definitely doesn't fit anymore, and as you can tell by the picture, it doesn't really have any form to it... (not that there would be any form to show off in my case but[t]... [ohohoo 8D])

So first we have the tools of Crafting IRL.  We have the Creepy-Voodo-Doll-Pin-Cushion, a Level 1 Primitive Sewing Machine (50% chance of failing while crafting), pretty awesome shears, and the all-powerful-multi-purpose-doohickey that has many names.  I've heard it called something like a Seam Ripper, but then I'd want to name it Jack and put it in a horror movie, Seam Stripper sounds NSFW, Stitch Remover sounds too surgical, and either way, none of these really explain how awesome I think this tool is. I like to think of it as a Salvaging Kit, or more accurately a Reverse Engineering tool (a la SWTOR).  Not only does it let you take apart your gear and return the base materials to you (better than scissors can), but it also allows for you to really understand how it's made and (especially for a noob like me) to think of ideas on how to use the materials to make something better (I've really been crafting too much in SWTOR, I think...).
In any case, the Salvaging Tool is also my CTRL+Z, for when the sewing machine fails me or I just mess up.

So, of course the first step was to Reverse Engineer the dress into its component pieces. Unlike the other dress, I really only used the bottom part and not even all of it because the top was just too skinny (God forbid, I've somehow developed hips since I bought these). So the straps and the rest of the top of this dress haven't been used at all, but are being kept on hand in case I ever need them again. I just chopped off the excess cloth and re-hemmed it.

The process was, unfortunately, not without casualties. This is what I mean by "50% chance of fail" when using my mom's old sewing machine. At least I was lucky enough that my materials weren't consumed and replacing the needle was enough to allow me to continue crafting.

After hemming the part that had been cropped, there was still the question of how I could get this creation to stay on my body. I decided on a simple to use, simple to make, solution - a drawstringribbon.

Sewing in a simple fold in which to put the ribbon, I had to put the ribbon IN and did not have any fancy tools with which to do so. Mom directed me to a bobby pin. This simple solution worked very well and shortly after worming it through the skirt, I had a finished project.

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but there are pockets in the front (they were already on the original dress - no need to remove them), and the ribbon comes out in the back. This latter feature is just because there was a slit back there from where the zipper used to be, so instead of sewing it up and trying to make a new hole for the ribbon to come out, I chose the lazy way out.

Anyway, overall this skirt was much easier than the next one that will be finished as soon as I can obtain a zipper of the right size.