Ruffles for Dressember

 Hello Readers. I hope you are having a happy holiday season. I have been talking about the Dressember fundraiser all month. I have been wearing (And refashioning!) dresses all month to participate. I am on a team with my daughter. You can learn about our team here. It isn't difficult to participate, consider joining us next year. All you have to do is sign up and wear a dress. (Approx 75% of the victims of human trafficking are women. The dress is a symbol of those women.) 

This is my last refashion of 2023. It is a fun project to end the year on a cheerful note. I do not remember where I found this dress, it was from a thrift store or a clothes swap, I know that much. (Scavenging, that's how I roll.) 

Before and after.

This dress was too tight in the bodice but the ruffles! I had to save the ruffles! The only way to do that was to make this into a skirt. 

I cut the dress to remove the top. I left enough fabric to make a casing for some elastic. These ruffles are made of chiffon. I hate working with this fabric. It frays like crazy and slips around a lot. All I had to do was make the waistband so I tried to just get it done quickly. 

 

I put the edge of the chiffon through my serger to keep it from fraying. 

 

I put the elastic through the casing. I connected the ends of the elastic and then stitched the casing closed. You can see the lining of my new skirt here. It is a nice cotton knit material, like a t-shirt. Whoever made this didn't choose the cheapest nylon/polyester lining material they could find. They actually chose something comfortable! 

 

My new skirt is so fun! And it matched this flower pin that I have had for years and years and never wore. What a way to end the year. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update- I caught a cold for Christmas so going out was not going to happen. I love these ruffles and they will be worn soon. 

 

 

 

A Dress Cut in Half for Dressember

 Hello Readers. It is December and it is the month of the Dressember fundraiser. It is such a busy time of year and participating in Dressember might seem like too much. This month I am wearing and refashioning dresses to raise awareness about the work they do. Is it hard to wear dresses all month? It was not possible to wear dresses at my old job so I wore a lot of ties. (That counts too.) If you can't or don't wear dresses, you can wear ties. Buy a tie from a thrift store or borrow from someone you know. It's easy. If you wear a uniform at work, it's OK, you can participate in your off hours. Head over to Dressember's website to learn more. 

I found this beautiful floral dress at a thrift store and bought it without much thought. It was way too long on me (I'm 5'0") but luckily I have a tall daughter. (She's 5'8") Usually we can swap clothes.

Before and after.

I saw this floral fabric and couldn't resist. I bought it. The dress didn't really fit my daughter or me. That's OK. There is always a way to make things work. 

My daughter cut the skirt off. She really liked it because it was a long length on her. Skirts tend to be too short on her so she was happy. 

She knows I don't throw away sewing or fabric scraps so she gave this top back to me. I used my serger around the bottom of it. 

I turned that serged edge under and then added elastic around the bottom. 

The elastic pulled the hem in and it looked more finished. Basically I made a cropped top. It looked great with this skirt. This would be a lot of visible stomach for me. (I'm 51 and I have had 3 kids. My stomach is not for public viewing.) 

Same top and skirt with a sweater on top...This would work better for me. 

It worked really well with high waisted over-alls like this. I will save this outfit for January when the Dressember fundraiser is over and I can wear pants again. The dress was cut up but it's not thrown away. It has a new look, a new use and a new life. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update- I always feel good when I can save scrap pieces. I love this combo too.

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.

An Elf Dress for Dressember

 Hello Readers. It's almost Christmas and when the month is over the Dressember fundraiser is over too. I have been wearing and refashioning dresses to participate in the annual fundraiser. We wear dresses because the victims of human trafficking are predominantly women and girls.  It is a $150 billion dollar industry. Please go to Dressember's website to learn more and give if you can. 

I got hit by a wave of Christmas spirit and threw together this red and green combo. It's a look for an elf? ... a modern relaxed Mrs. Claus? ... Ms. Frizzle's casual Christmas? Whatever it is, I was feeling it.

 

Before and after. 

 

This green dress was waiting to be part of the Christmas project. That will work for my Christmas elf dress plan. 

I also had this red trim thanks to my sweet mother-in-law.

I got some red thread and sewed this red trim all around my greet dress. This only took a little while. 

 

I found  this little Christmas tree patch in my button stash and ironed it on my dress too. 

 

My elf dress was finished! It's a little crazy and I love it!

 

Thank you for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update- This was perfect for having a fun day. Just a regular day here.

White Christmas Dress for Dressember

 Hello Readers. I have been wearing and refashioning and posting about wearing dresses all month in honor of Dressember. Dressember is a great organization working to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S. and abroad. There are currently over 50 million victims facing this situation worldwide. This issue must be addressed, go to Dressember's website to learn more. 

Christmas has been on my mind and I got a little excited about this blue dress. I found some buttons shaped like snowflakes and I was all in. I was thinking what would Mrs. Claus wear if she got tired of red?

 

Before and after. 

This dress had so much potential. I loved the full skirt but the black seemed too harsh to me. 

The light blue reminded me of these costumes from the old movie "White Christmas".

I removed all the buttons. They were too dark and I was thinking of winter and snow.. white.

When I saw these snowflake buttons I was more sure of my plan. I replaced the black and gold buttons with these white snowflake buttons. 

I cut the black collar and cuffs off. I wasn't worried about the cut edges, I was going to cover that up later. 

 

I cut some strips of batting. I wish I had some white fur but this will work fine. 

 

I sewed the batting on the dress along with some ribbon and some lace trim. This will cover all the cut edges I made when I cut off the black pieces. I also attached this to the hem of the dress. This will give the dress a snowy winter feeling. 

 

I used the large snowflake buttons to decorate the dress and I was done. 

 

This dress makes me feel like I should be in an old timey black and white photo. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

 

***Year End Update- I loved this it was so fun for Christmas and all of the winter holidays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding Sleeves on a Dress for Dressember

 Hello Readers. I have been refashioning and wearing dresses all month in honor of Dressember. The idea is to wear dresses all month to raise awareness and money to help fund their work to fight human trafficking. Any gift can help, just $150 can fund a move to relocate a family that needs to start their lives again in a safe location. Go to Dressember.org to learn more about how you can help and how to give.

Let's talk about refashioning a dress for this special time of year. This dress was actually fine. It just didn't have sleeves. And it's cold out there. I could just add a sweater on top but I wanted to do something fun for Christmas. 

 

Before and after.

 

I found this Santa fabric at a thrift store and it was SO cute. There was not much of it and it was cut all around the edges. I had to really thing about what to do with it. 

 

Just look at these Santas!!

I cut off all the fringe. They tried to make a tie blanket and gave up, I think. My piece of fabric was getting smaller after cutting off all the fringe.

I cut what was left into 4 squares that were all the same size. I matched them up and put them together with the right sides facing each other and I made sure all the Santas were right side up. I am making sleeves without a pattern but I knew that I didn't want any Santa upside down. 

I cut a triangular piece off the squares. I want my sleeves to look good and sleeves are usually shorter under the arm. Trust me. It's going to be great.

Here are my 2 sleeves. I sewed them together with the right sides facing each other and then turned them right side out. 

I folded the straight end of my sleeve in and sewed a casing. I want to add elastic to the ends of my sleeves to gather the sleeves into a poof.

I threaded narrow elastic through the casing. It was a short piece of elastic compared to the sleeve so I accidentally pulled the elastic all the way through and had to start over. 

I held the end in my teeth like an animal to prevent it from happening again. When it was all the way through I tied the ends of the elastic into a knot and sewed the casing closed. 

I sewed the sleeves into the arm holes of the dress. The sleeves were really big compared to the arm hole and that gave me lots of gathered fabric and made really poofy sleeves. That is what I wanted. 

I really liked my new sleeves. I didn't alter the dress at all. I just added the Santa sleeves. 

 

Thank you for reading along and happy Holidays to all of you!

 

***Year End Update- This was fun and still a little dressed up. Perfect for Christmas.