I Sew Made This!

I'm feeling proud and a bit braggy! I am not a seamstress. I've tried to sew a few things here and there with my second-hand sewing machine my mother picked up for me. I'm not very good at it but occasionally feel ambitious.

Awhile ago I stumbled upon a blog. Jillian over at ReFashionista makes all sorts of beautiful clothes out of thrift store duds. I spent half the night perusing her blog admiring all of her wonderful refashions. I felt inspired, yet incapable.

Last night I felt like I wanted to sew. When I told my husband my desire he responded, "WHAT?" and gave me a weird look. Like I said, I don't sew. Anyway I pulled out my small stash of fabric to see what I could do.

In my stash I found this old new shirt my mother had bought me a few years ago but never fit me right.

I tend to resemble a pregnant lady as is. Empire wasted shirts only add to my problem. Smocked empire wasted shirts REALLY accentuate my problem. It had to go! Although, I love the little details on the fabric, so into my fabric bin it went… and waited.

I really wasn't sure what I was going to make, but started by ripping the seam that connected the top portion of the shirt to the smocking. You would laugh if you saw the way I did this. I don't even own a seam ripper, so I used a small flat-head screwdriver to do the job.

After I separated those two pieces, I stripped my daughter of the dress she had on. With the white shirt turned inside out, I layed Solee's dress on top as a guide. I placed pins into the shirt leaving a bit of a seam allowance.

The red dress is inside out just because that's the way it came off.

Next I sewed up the side of the dress.

Then cut the excess fabric off.

At this point I had a cute tube top dress for my babe, but I wanted some sleeves. I don't have pictures for the remaining steps because we were nearing bedtime. I was trying to work quickly before my kiddos started melting down.

Next, I removed the original sleeves from the bodice (I had to google that word.). While my babe had the dress on I carefully pinned the sleeves where I wanted them. This was the most difficult part of the process due to my squirmy baby.

I sewed the sleeves on then cut the excess fabric and thread away. I missed the ironing step, but that's something I can always do later. (I always tell myself I'll get to the ironing later.)

My little model wasn't very cooperative for pictures, but I got a few shots of the dress.

Today she debuted her new dress at church, wrinkle free, and looked oh so cute.

If you sew you're probably thinking this is way too easy and doesn't count as a real sewing project. As for me, I'm feeling awesome!