Saturday, April 17, 2010

Dress Factory- Part 2

I think I'm going to be addicted to make dresses like this, they're just so darn easy! If you missed the first post you can find the details for how to take a child's tee & turn it into a toddler tank dress here (it's the Dora one) but basically you cut off the sleeves, replace with ribbing in smaller armhole size, add a ruffle & wah-lah! Cute summer dress! I really like this idea because I feel like it's so much easier to find fun, funky girl's size shirts verses toddler ones. And chubby little toddler shoulders are absolutely irresistible to me.

The final dress I can't say as good of things about. At first glance it seems pretty cute...The flannel has silver threads in it, I like the knit baseball sleeves with ruffle cuffs...but then you pan down a bit...EEK! This is what happens when you keep meddling with something. You tweak it to death. It was originally a nice straight dress but then I thought it was too straight so I tried to add little side kick pleats...yeah, that didn't quite turn out how I had envisioned. So now this gets thrown into the "I don't quite have the heart to trash it or rip it up but it also isn't going to get used as it is so it's going to sit here forever" pile.

Ah well, they can't all be winners right?
Poor little dress.

I do however have some hopefully happier ending dresses on the horizon, look at this yummy pile of ruffly knit fabric that just came in the mail!!
Oooooooo! Ahhhhhhhhhh!

11 comments:

  1. I love the flannel dress! It would be cute with some thick tights in the winter time. And the new fabric that came in the mail--I cannot wait to see what you are gonna do with it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seam rip it and sew it back the way it was originally?

    Where'd you get that white ruffly goodness from? I LOVE it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The t-shirt dresses are so cute! Makes me want to run out to old navy and pick up some of their cute t's for all the little girls I know. On the ribbing you are putting around the arms and necks, is that something you buy or are you using an old ribbed shirt?

    ReplyDelete
  4. what about cutting the bottom off the flannel dress and adding a ruffle bottom to it instead?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't give up on the plaid dress! It is really cute. I agree with the last comment - cut off the bottom with the kick pleats and add a cream ruffle instead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree cut off the bottom and add a ruffle. Or, turn it into a shirt. I think there are still lots of options for this dress.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ok, you guys have given me the gusto to give the plaid one another whirl, I'll try it out during naptime!

    Also to answer the couple of q's...

    -I didn't seam rip the sleeves or neckline off, I just cut them off with scissors then used new ribbing (although you could certainly use the existing neckline ribbing just shortened, there wasn't any on the sleeves). Then yeah, I just sewed the smaller size ribbing back on the way the original was.

    -For the ribbing I picked it up at JoAnn's. Awhile back I had them cut me 1/4 yard a few different colors so it was really cheap, like $1 something each color. It's nice to have on hand and I like to add in a contrasting color for a little pop. You could certainly reuse it off of an old shirt though if you have it around...

    ReplyDelete
  8. That ruffle knit looks awesome. Where did you get it??

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi I've been looking at you plaid dress and have an idea! Add two more pleats to the front and two to the back ( evenly spaced ) then all around the dress bordering the top of the pleats add a gold/silver strip!

    ReplyDelete
  10. That fabric does look nice. I also love chubby baby shoulders and am glad it's summer, so I can show off my chubby baby's arms.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've just been browsing your tutorials and saw this little plaid dress. Were you able to re-make it? It was really cute to start with!! I'd love to try something like that for winter and wondered what pattern you used originally for the dress? Thanks!
    Oh--I'd love to see pics of the re-done plaid dress and what you made with the ruffly fabric! I know your little one isn't having such fun evenings--mine did the same thing. I'm dreading that if we have a second!

    ReplyDelete