Dressember 2018; Dress 1

Hello Readers. It is Dressember again. No, not December. Dressember. It is a month-long event to fight human trafficking and modern-day slavery. It starts with a pledge to wear dresses (Or bow-ties.) everyday of December. It is a simple way to open up conversations and raise awareness about the organization and the international human trafficking crisis.

 Dressember estimates that there are over 30 million enslaved people around the world right now. You can visit their site to learn more.

I like to refashion dresses in honor of Dressember. Today is the first dress. There will be more all month. This is my daughter. She is also participating in Dressember. Today's dress is actually hers.

 The first time she let me show her on the blog!

She had a great cotton shirt dress to work with. It was a little shapeless. It was nice cotton but it had no stretch. She couldn't tailor it too much because would be uncomfortable. So what did she do?

She started by cutting off the sleeves at the shoulder seams and finishing the arm holes so it could be worn sleeveless or with different shirts under it. She thought a sleeveless dress would allow for more freedom of movement and styling versatility.

 She also decided to make a casing inside the dress and add a drawstring at the waist. She used some wide grosgrain ribbon instead of fabric to keep making the casing simple.

She pinned the ribbon in place all around the inside waist of the dress. She stitched it in place on the sewing machine easily.

You can see the casing made from the white ribbon here. She used some narrow ribbon to insert through the casing. She stitched the ends of the narrow ribbon to the front of the dress. It gathered the waist a little bit and gave the dress some shape.

Here is my sweet daughter in her shirt dress. She wore a black shirt under it. 

 The waist is gathered in but is still loose enough to be comfortable.

She came home after work and I insisted on taking a picture right away. She didn't like that but she does like her dress.

 Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.