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.
 

Free, Easy & Sustainable Gift Wrap

 Hello Readers. Are you preparing for the holidays? Are you wrapping up little gifts for friends and loved ones? Are you running out of gift wrap or are you tired of buying wrap and bags and throwing them out? I have an idea.

Sometimes a great solution is right in front of you.

Most of us have a pile of grocery bags stuffed in a cabinet somewhere in the kitchen. When I order groceries they come in these bags. They can be recycled but I had a pile in my house and they gave me an idea. Gift wrap!

I removed the handles by pulling firmly.

I cut straight down one side of the bag, it doesn't matter what side.

I cut the bottom of the bag out completely. 

I spread the bag flat and cut some more bags. They got smoother the longer they sat there. So you could do this ahead of time if you want.

Then I just wrapped the brown paper around my gifts like any other gift wrap. I made sure the writing on the bag was facing the gift so it would be hidden inside the package.

The paper is totally opaque and didn't rip when the corner of  box poked it. This was a big plus to me. 

I used small pieces of tape to hold the paper together like you do with gift wrap.

You can write on the paper and tie string around it as if it was an old fashioned package, instead of buying tags or labels.

You could also use more traditional curling ribbon if you want.

The packages all look great in a pile under the tree. I didn't have to drive to the store and spend money on gift wrap just to throw it in the trash later. What ever the holiday you are celebrating I send you all my best wishes for a happy holiday and the best in 2024.

 

***Year End Update- I used these bags for all my gifts and didn't have to buy any wrap this year.

Sheath Dress for Dressember

 Hello Readers. I have been wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of Dressember. This is an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor. They estimate there are more than 12 million child victims right now. Dressember works to get victims out of these situations and help them recover. You can go to Dressember to learn more.

  I like to collect vintage patterns and use them when I can. This plaid dress was fun to make and taught me to never use this kind of gauzy material again. We live and learn, right? 

Plaid for the holidays? Sure, why not!

 

Pattern 4598 from Pattern Service NYC. This pattern is pretty old and I have never heard of this company but they are still around.

 

This fabric has been in my sewing stash for a while. My daughter bought it and never used it. (She said I could use it for this dress.) The red caught my eye because it looked a little Chistmas/festive. 

 

The reverse side of the red was this bright blue. I really liked that color so I switched it up and made a blue dress.  

 

This gauze-like plaid was annoying to work with. I didn't realize how much it would fray until I was in the middle of making this dress. I was determined to finish this dress no matter what. It was kind of a pain in the neck but I hat unfinished projects. I cut out my pieces. 

 

 I put the front and back together. I put it on my dress form to get a feel for how it would look. This material was soft but somehow still stiff. It was weird. I barely had enough fabric to cut out the pieces. I decided to just push through and make this dress no matter what.

 

The fraying was crazy! 

 

I made the hem.

 

I put in the zipper.

 

I really liked that blue! Thanks goodness I was done and it was wearable. Some projects do not go smoothly, that's OK. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 ***Year End Update- I am glad I pushed myself to finish this. I love the blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Sweater Dress for Dressember

 Hello Readers. It is Dressember season. What is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking. Dressember's focus is advocacy, prevention, intervention and empowerment of victims. $40 can give a child everything they need to go to school so they can make a future for themselves. Things like a uniform, books, supplies, school fees... $75 can give a family what they need to start a small business for themselves so they can provide their own necessities and live in freedom. Go to Dressember to learn more.

Let's look at a dress I refashioned and wore in honor of Dressember.

 

Before and after.

 

This dress was ... fine. It was soft and comfortable but I just felt like it was dragging me down. If I was tall and slender maybe this would look better. But I am short and lumpy. This isn't a great style dress for me. I need a shorter length and a more defined waist. 

I can make that waist and "shorten" the dress at the same time. I can add elastic to make a waist. I planned to sew the elastic around the inside of the dress. I can use the color blocking as a guide for where to sew the elastic. 

I stitched the elastic to the inside of the dress and stitched right where the colors changed. Following the color line will make my new waistband straight and even. I used a zigzag stitch and tugged on the elastic gently as I stitched.

The new waistband changed the shape of the dress so much. 

Close-up look at the gently gathered waist.

Thanks for reading along, I know this is a busy time for everyone. I hope you are having a peaceful, restful, happy December. Holiday stress is real, but I hope you can avoid it. 

***Year End Update- This is a simple dress but it is so easy to wear and layer to stay warm in winter.