Dressember Dresses; The Maternity One

 Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org

Edited & Updated -I found this black maternity dress at a swap long ago and I didn't realize it was maternity. I thought it was a black knit dress. I don't need a maternity dress. (Like seriously, I am 48 (53). I do NOT need or want to try and break world records by having a baby at this age.)

 

This dress was really full and round but what I really needed was a black shirt. I know this is a month of dresses but I didn't have a long-sleeve black shirt and it would be really handy for layering in these cold months. 

 

 I decided to use a shirt I liked as a guide and cut out a black shirt that would fit under other shirts and sweaters. 

 It was easy to make the shirt. I used the bottom of the dress and made a skirt. I made a simple elastic waistband for it and I was done. I am counting this as a 2 piece dress for this month of dress refashions.

 I can wear the shirt by itself later and for Christmas Day I thought this black combo was a little plain. I used some of my ribbon stash to jazz up this outfit. 

 The candy cane ribbon made this outfit a lot more fun. (I added it at the hemline and wore it as a belt.)

 

(I really love dressing up for the holidays.) Thanks for reading along, and Merry Christmas if you are celebrating today.

Mrs. Claus Dress

 Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org

*Repost from 2018*

 This dress started as a robe of some kind. Or was it a nightgown? Did that count as a dress? I said yes. This robe was peach and and miles too long and I just wasn't loving it. It seemed like a nylon fire hazard to sleep in it. But I thought it had potential.

The first thing I did was use dye made for synthetic fabric. This kind of dye needed very hot water and at least half an hour.

Here is what I ended up with. The hem didn't seem even so I put it on my dress form and used a yard stick to measure as I cut it to knee length.

  

To make "fur trim I used batting. I didn't want to buy fur. The whole point of this blog is to try and NOT spend money. Or at least spend as very little as possible. 

 I cut the batting into strips and made little curved cuts in it. I thought that would look more like fur. Really straight lines didn't seem like fur to me. I didn't make it perfectly even in width either.

   

 I added some white lace on top of the batting just to jazz it up. I used narrow lace everywhere and wide lace at the collar and cuffs. All it needed was a wide black belt to look like Mrs. Claus. This would be perfect for Christmas day or anytime I want to look like Santa's wife.

Thanks for reading along, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Dressember Dresses; The Giraffe One

Let's look back at a past refashion I did for Dressember in 2020.

 Hello Readers. December is almost over and that means the Dressember fundraiser is almost over too. Dressember's focus is on prevention, intervention and protection for victims and people at risk for human trafficking. Go to Dressember.org to learn more about the work they do in the U.S. and world wide.

Let's talk sewing! How do you feel about giraffes?

 

 This giraffe dress and matching vest are really not looking good on me. I loved the pink color and giraffes are great. I just wasn't sure I wanted all these giraffes all over me. I didn't love the style of this dress and the length really needed to be cut. 

I decided to use the top of the vest as the top of my new dress. I wanted something simple that I could wear with anything. The giraffes would make it harder to match my clothes and wear the dress. This 

is a picture of the leftover lower half of the vest, after cutting off the top. 

I cut the middle of the dress out and used it as my skirt. I didn't want the button up collar or the design at the hem of the original dress. I have been trying to focus on simple, easy-to-wear dresses for this month of dress refashions.

 

 

 When it was all put together, I really liked the result. This dress was easy and comfortable to wear. 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dressember Dresses; The Tie-Dye One

 Hello Readers. I am in the middle of a series of dress refashions in honor of Dressember. What is Dressember? It is an organization that tries to raise awareness about human trafficking. It also helps victims escape and recover. It partners with other organizations working in this area as well. Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 United States and on every continent, except Antarctica. Check their website to learn more. 

This tie-dye dress was soft, stretchy and who doesn't love tie-dye?

 There were some problems with this dress. It was WAY too long. Like way too long.

 My first step was to cut the top of the dress off so that I had a longer style tunic shirt.

 I used a favorite pair of leggings as a pattern and cut out 2 halves or 2 legs so I could make myself a pair of tie-dye leggings to go with my top.

 I cut the scrap off the hem to make a waistband. This fabric was so stretchy, it didn't need an elastic waistband, the fabric was enough.

 Here is the waistband, I just kind of held the waistband up to myself to get the right size. I made a really wide waistband because I wanted the leggings to have a high waist.

I was super happy with my new pajamas. Is this a dress? No. It was a dress, so I am counting it for Dressember. It's 2020, we have to make allowances. I will wear a dress or tie when I get dressed for the day.

 This outfit was perfect for sleeping and making breakfast. 

 

This 3 feet of kitchen was clean.

 Thanks for reading along, check out the Dressember website if you can. 

Dressember 2018; Dress 3

Let's look back a past refashion.

Hello Readers. This is the third dress in this series in honor of Dressember, a non-profit organization working to fight human trafficking. Dressember estimates that every 30 seconds someone becomes a slave, 71% are women and girls. We wear dresses all month to represent them.

Today's dress is a vintage find from a clothes swap. This graphic black and white design really caught my eye.

This knit dress fit well but this ruffled collar and these wrist cuffs were way too much for me. I hate things around my neck. I feel like I am being strangled. These seemed like they belonge in a Shakespearean play. "Be gone foul ruffles!"

Look at the cute worm on the tag. I wish he was bigger, he's adorable. And this dress was made in Italy. That had to be good. It seemed to be a vintage dress, I love finding vintage clothing. They are always such unique pieces.

The first thing I did was cut that collar off. There was no way I would wear it with that collar. I thought a V-neck would open the whole dress up a little. I also cut the sleeves to 3/4 length. This print design is so strong, I thought a little less of it might be better.

I cut off some of the length at the bottom and gave it a new hem too. I wanted it to be knee length.

 Here is a look at all the scraps I cut off. I wound up cutting more off the bottom than you see in this picture. But you can get the gist of it.

I liked this dress in the new simpler form. I think the bold fabric is great without big ruffles. The dress is simpler and the fabric gets to be the star.

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

Dressember 2018; Dress 1

Let's revisit a past refashion.

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.

Dresses For December Part 4, The Big Vest

Let's revisit a past refashion project.

Hello Readers. I am still refashioning dresses this month in honor of Dressember. You can go to Dressember.org to learn more about how they are fighting human trafficking and assisting victims as they begin new lives. What I read was eye-opening to me and I wanted to try to call attention to their work. 

 

 My project today began a big loose vest.

Is this a big vest? Or a sort of shawl? Whatever it is, I never wore it. It was soft and pretty but it was too big and it hung all over. I think on a tall woman this would look dramatic and elegant. On my 5' body it looked like a blanket. But I loved the design of it. The black and white make such a strong contrasting print.

 

I began by putting it on my dress form inside out and pinning it into a dress shape. You can see the pins in the pictures below if you look really close. I used my machine to stitch the two front sides together. This made a seam from the neck to the hem. That seam won't look very nice on the front of my dress though.

I turned the dress around and used the back as the front. That seam will be less noticeable in the back of the dress. I cut off the excess and tweaked the fit here and there. The length was a little on the short side.

I used some of that excess and cut thin strips to add to the bottom of the dress. It added a couple inches in length. That helped a lot.

Here is a look at the front and back of the dress. I tried to match up the design in the back but I couldn't get it perfect (That's OK!) and get the fit I wanted the dress to have. I wanted it to be comfortable and not too tight. I was happy with how it turned out. I was able to make a soft cowl neck at the top of this little sweater dress.

This was really fun to put together and to wear.

Thanks for reading, now go make yourself something fun.