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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Pretty and Pink - From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

At long last, the first of my reconstruction projects is completed.  I took an old, yet cute dress and turned it into a new and still cute skirt, and more.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

I bought this dress at Goodwill a while ago, only paid $1.50.  Not bad right?  I loved the pink eyelet fabric used, but I found the top of the dress wasn’t very flattering on me.  High waist and low neckline requires more of a bust then I’ve been blest with.

So I thought, why not turn it into a skirt.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

First, I measured from the bottom and cut the skirt from the dress at the length I wanted.  I pinned it at the top to hold the skirt and the lining together.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

I then carefully separated the shirred section (the stretchy part) from the rest of the dress.  I will use it as the waistband for my new skirt.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

Here is the skirt carefully pinned to the “waistband”.  Just need to sew it with a zig-zag stitch and then…

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

…I have a cute new skirt.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

To make it that much cuter, I added some thin lace to the bottom of the ruffle.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

And I cut one of the old straps to make a small bow for the front of the skirt.  Mainly so I can tell which side is the front.

Now what did I do with the rest of the dress?  I made doll clothes.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Doll clothes too.

I thought that if I separated the triangle sections on the top of the dress, then I could whip up a couple of halter tops for the dolls.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making doll clothes with leftovers

Actually with Sakura here, I could whip up a halter dress.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making doll clothes.

Just add some ribbon, fold the top point over it and sew it down…

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making doll clothes.

Then wrap it around the doll and add some Velcro or snaps.  Easy enough right?

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making a doll dress

But for this small doll,  I decided to cut the halter part at her waist and add a fuller skirt.  Plenty of scraps for that.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making doll clothes.

As for my larger dolls, I notice that the back of the original dress had some decent elastic.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Making doll clothes

And if I cute sections of it like this, they would make easy skirts.  Just need to add a ruffle to make them long enough.  That was the idea, but I made some mistakes with cutting.  I still ended up using the same elastic for the waistbands.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Cute doll clothes

The results is a halter top and two skirts for my larger ball jointed dolls, and a cute halter dress for my smaller one.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Cute doll halter dress

And cute is indeed the word for this adorable dress.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Cute doll skirt and halter top.

The halter top and mini skirt looks very cute on Usagi here.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More

I used the same lace on my skirt for the bottom of all the doll clothes.

Pretty and Pink: From Dress to Cute Skirt and More: Cute doll skirt.

And there’s a slightly longer skirt for Hikaru too.  You can see more photos of the clothes on the doll blog.

A new skirt and four pieces of doll clothes from a single unworn dress.  Not too shabby. 

Here’s the updated list:

  • Pink eyelet
  • Sunflower dress
  • Denim skirt
  • Velvet dress
  • Blue plaid
  • High-waist

One down, five more to go.

Preview of next reconstruction project

And here’s a sneak peak at the next project on my list.  What will it become, you shall find out soon.  Look forward to it.

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Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Craft Project List: Up to Thirty-Seven

craft project list #37

Well, the 5 a Week challenge has been completed and summer is coming to an end.  Time to bring back the list.  My project lists! 

Anyway, I have several bags of clothing that need mending from all that closet decluttering (see 2016 Resolutions Update: Round 2).  I meant to get to work on it during the summer, but never got around to it. 

So why not now?  And instead of simply mending the pieces, why not rework them into something even better.  So the theme for this new list is reconstruction.  All the projects are taking old pieces of clothing and making them newer and cuter. 

Craft Project List #37

  • Pink eyelet
  • Sunflower dress
  • Denim skirt
  • Velvet dress
  • Blue plaid
  • High-waist

I plan to have them all completed by the end of the month.  Wish me luck!

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