More Upcycling

Awhile back my sister gave me this cute sun dress since she was not wearing it anymore.

 I had borrowed this dress several years ago when I went to Mexico as evidenced here.

 I decided to try to wear it the other day, and really just wasn't feeling it.  Not sure if it's because I just had a baby or if it's because I'm super pale but it just was no longer flattering on me.  Not to mention that the lining on this dress only came down so far (the last 2 ruffles did not have lining and you could see that) -- it always bothered me.  So I was going to try to turn it into a top for me.  BUT when I tried that on, it too did not look flattering.

So what's a girl to do? Answer: turn it into a dress for their 4 year old daughter.  I just took in the seams in the top (I did not even mess with the skirt part...it actually looked good full) and adjusted the straps.  She of course loves it since she only wants to wear dresses every day.  Nice free way to give her a new one.

A Busy Week

After awhile of not really doing anything creative, I whipped out 3 new dresses this week...crazy!  That never happens.  But I once again bought an amazing pattern from Little Blue Boo.  This time the pattern was for me--yeah!  It is called the pieced tunic dress and here is my first attempt.

Front:

Back: 

This was made using all old shirts of mine (4 total, the red Cross Canadian Ragweed shirt, a striped Old Navy shirt, a purple shirt, and a brown shirt).  I love the funkiness of it and think it turned out really cute.  I did modify the pattern slightly with the waistband part to try to lengthen the dress a bit but it still ended up a little short so I think this is more of a tunic or I might use it as a beach cover up.  I also made the size medium (which I normally am) but since I am only 2 months post partum, I probably should have gone up a size as my chest is a bit bigger than normal.  Also the red shirt I used was probably not as stretchy as it should have been (it was a bit stiff due to the print on it) and that did not help.  But I modified the chest part before I sewed it by adding a few scraps to it.

Would love to show you a photo of me in it, but since it is kind of short and I am super pale right now, it wouldn't be pretty. :)

Dress #2 was for Ava using some of my old shirts.  It's a bit crazy as I don't have too many coordinating shirts on hand but I still like the overall look and since this was the first time to make this LBB pattern (the Sienna dress), I figured I should use what I had rather than possibly mess up stuff I buy.

This used my old Hula Hut/Keep Austin Weird shirt, a shirt we got from the Duck, NC fire department 2 or 3 years ago and a black shirt of Darren's.

Front:

 Back:

 And then I made another dress like this one. Loved that one last year and wanted to do another one.  Ava actually fits in the one I made last year since I ended up adding a white layer at the bottom to lengthen it.  Here is her new one (I think she likes it!).  This one was just 2 shirts (one of them being the rest of the purple one I used in my tunic).

 The 4T size on this one is a little big in the chest part for her but that just means she can wear it next year too.  Besides if you tie it higher (which I did) it fits just fine.  That or I can end up adding the loops on the back like last time.

So excited about these and want to make more...just need more cool shirts.  I'll be on the lookout!