Poofy Dress Week #3-Adding Sleeves

 Hello Readers. I am into the loose poofy dresses that are popular right now. They are fun and so  comfortable because there is no tight waistband! I love it. Today's post is poofy dress 2 and I found it at a thrift store. The color reminded me of Barbie, who I love. But I didn't love the straps, I kind of wanted sleeves. Big sleeves.

Before and after.

This dress was great but it was too long for me. Or I was too short for it. Either way, we need to fix this. I couldn't make that lower tier shorter. It would look weird if the bottom tier was half the length of the others. It had to be fully removed. That was fine because I had an idea about what to do with that extra fabric. 

I removed so may stitches. My seam ripper got a work out. This took a while but I wanted the edges intact. I couldn't cut it off, that would mess up the length of the tier above it.

I was working on this for quite a while. I had second thoughts but I kept going. When I make a decision, I follow through. Even if it is much more tedious than I thought it would be. I don't know if this is a strength, it is just what I do. 

 

I did cut the straps off the back of the dress. 

 

I pulled the straps from the front over the shoulders and sewed them in place in the back where the back straps used to be. These are the beginnings of my sleeves.

 

I cut the tier in half and used one half for one sleeve and one half for the other. I draped the fabric over the shoulder strap. I pinned it to the strap. The fabric had a pretty ruffled edge that I used at the shoulder. It matches the little ruffled edge at the neckline and looks great.

 

I pinned the sleeve all around the strap and then to the dress, under the arm. I had more fabric than I needed so I cut off some of the extra fabric. Everyone's arm size is different, so the measurement around the arm and over the shoulder will differ. The sleeve is still nice and poofy.

 

I sewed the sleeve to the strap and connected the sleeve together under the arm. 

 

It looked kind of like this. I liked the square neckline but I thought the sleeves needed a little more something.

 

I decided to add narrow elastic around the sleeves, about 2-3 inches from the ends of the sleeves to make a nice puffy sleeve. 

 

Sleeve close-up! 

 

 I was loving these sleeves and I was ready for a Barbie Re-watch party. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update***- This dress is so fun. I wore it a lot until cold weather hit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poofy Dress Week #1 (Filling in a Low Neckline)

 Hello Readers. I am in a poofy dress frenzy. I wanted to refashion and wear all of the poofy dresses so the dresses on my refashion rack are all getting worked on this week. This green dress is a wonderful cotton eyelet with a cotton lining. I hate nylon linings so I was loving this dress already.

Before and after.

I found this dress at a clothes swap and I love green so I liked it right away. It was a bit long on me, I felt a little lost in there. I look a little like a Hobbit. And it was a little low cut on me as well. If I lean over, all my bits and pieces are visible. I didn't like that.

It was new with tags at the clothes swap! That is always a fun bonus. 

 

I cut about 8-10 inches off the length of the outer layer with my sharpest scissors. It was really long on me and it will look better on me in a shorter length. (I saved this fabric for later.)

 

And the inner layer. The inner layer should be an inch or so shorter than the outer layer so that it doesn't hang out anywhere along the hemline. 

 

I hemmed the outer layer with matching thread. I just turned the cut edge under twice and sewed it down.

 

I hemmed the inner layer the same way.

 

I wasn't quite done. I wanted to fill in the V-neck that was so low on me. I had all the fabric I had cut off the dress earlier. I needed that fabric now. I used the excess fabric to fill in the V-neck a little. 

 

I cut a triangular shape from the extra fabric. I wanted to sew it into the dress and fill in the neckline. The long side of the triangle is actually the original hem of the dress. That saved time because it already had a hem on that edge.

 

I put the triangle inside the dress with the right side facing out and sewed on top of the stitching that was already made up the neckline of the dress. I held the fabric in place snugly. (You could use pins if you want. I usually stab myself so if I can hold the fabric in my hand, that is what I do.) Sewing over that stitching with matching thread will make it look like it was always there. 

 

My new dress was done. The new neckline looks nice and neat and it makes me feel more secure and the new length looks great too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 ***Year End Update***- I am still into this dress. I love the full skirt.