80's Denim Dress for Dressember

  Hello Readers. I am participating in the Dressember fundraiser  again this year. Dressember works to fight human trafficking and assist victims. It was started in 2005 by Blythe Hill. It grew from just her wearing dresses every day for the month of December to raise money. It grew and grew and in 2021 they raised 16MM. Go to Dressember's website to see my team with my daughter and learn more about the work Dressember does.

I found this dated denim home school mom dress at a clothes swap and I knew I could use all that denim for something fun. It was floor length on me and I did not get a proper before picture of it. I was SO excited to refashion it I just jumped right in.

Before and after.

I cut almost 20 inches of length from the bottom of this dress. I knew it was too long so I just got some extra out of my way. 

I put it on my dress form to get an idea of how much I wanted to take in the sides. This was too fitted because this denim had no stretch and it wouldn't get off the dress form.

In the end I took a couple inches off each side. 

I used my serger to sew those new side seams but you can use a zigzag stitch for this too. 

Now this is the fabric I cut off the bottom of the dress. I knew I wanted to add a ruffle and this is what I had to make that ruffle with. I had to make it a ruffle somehow. This dress had slits on each side. That was going to be my ruffle. I hope the pointy corners will an interesting feature. 

I clipped my ruffle in place so I could make sure it was spread out evenly. You can see the pointy corners. I think they will add a fun touch.

Preview of the ruffle. I took this and headed to the serger. 

I had to hold the gathered fabric as I sewed. I had to do this to make sure the gathered fabric stayed gathered as it went through the machine. 

I went over my new seams and the ruffle with an iron. 

That was it. My new dress is fun and comfortable to. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- I love this dress it is loose and good for winter layers. It will match everything and anything.