Brynn's Upcycle Dress

Hey, today I'm feeling prett-ay crafty and awesome with myself because I actually did one of those diy things that's always floating around my facebook feed. I made Brynn a dress from a dude shirt! Yay! And I'm here to tell you all about it (read: brag shamelessly).

Please note, this is not really a tutorial. I definitely don't consider myself qualified enough to give crafty tutorials. This is more like a "HEYYY look at this cute thing I did here are some crappy cell phone pictures to prove I did it" type of thing.

But it's cute though, right??

So I went to Goodwill yesterday, which is not something I usually enjoy doing. But this trip was fun! I found this pink striped shirt in 3 seconds and I also walked out with 5 books for $2 and a giant heart-shaped cake pan because it's Valentine's day soon, so obviously I need a giant heart-shaped cake pan. 

So here's my shirt: 

And here's my ridiculously messy sewing room, because keeping it real: 

You know like on Pinterest and on blogs everyone's sewing room is neat and color-coordinated and cutely decorated? YEAH, JOKES. 

Also I have a cleaning up problem. In my defense, that chambray that is still on the floor made a darling dress for Brynn last week: 

So, back to my non-tutorial.

I used a dress to kind of trace the shape of the dress I wanted. At first I cut the collar off thinking I could keep the original neckline, but if you keep the neckline you can't keep the original hemline. So what I ended up doing is drawing the dress pattern from the bottom, and just making the dress long enough so that an original button was right under the seam line on the top. 

I used a bodice pattern piece to help drawing too. (From the chambray dress with the ruffles down the bodice front, which is why it's not a full pattern piece. I had to chop it up). 

So when I cut out the dress I did it on the fold so everything would be the same size/shape. First I did the front and then I used that piece to do the back. The neckline was just a little higher in the back. 

So then I sewed the shoulder seams. 

I wanted to do an easy neckline and bias faced is easy. But I was feeling way too lazy to make my own bias tape, and I wasn't sure I had enough material to make it anyway. So I used blue bias tape. Contrasting colors is like a thing people do, right? So it's not mismatched, it's a "fun surprise" or something. 

Neckline done! 

Then I used my trusty Building Block Dress book to draw a basic cap sleeve. 

So then I attached the sleeves and sewed up the side seams. 

I had Brynn try it on at this point (bribed her with a cookie) and I thought the dress looked a little too wide, kind of more like a lab coat than a cute dress. So I just trimmed off some on the sides and tried it again, and it was better. 

I did a gathered pocket on the front of the dress but didn't get any pictures of that part! Probably because Brynn was trying to "fix" my sewing machine by messing with the bobbin while I was working so I was a little distracted. 

But after the pocket and the sleeve hems the dress was done! 

Excuse the poor quality of photos. You can still tell she's cute, right? 

We like it! And it came together so fast. 

I told her to put her hand in her pocket and this is what she did. Brynn loves pockets! 

At some point I might put another button in at the front of the dress at the bottom to keep it closed better, but that can wait for now. I'm not feeling like buttonholes today. 

After I took pictures of Brynn, she wanted to take some pics of me, which is fair. 

After sewing, we had lunch, and Brynn wore her dress. And she needed some water which she wanted to get herself. 

Dangerous stuff, but I'm trying to let her be independent. She dropped her cup like half a second after this picture was taken, and then she slipped in the water. So while she was crying she told me her dress was wet and she needed a different one. So even though she only wore it for about 20 minutes I'm still happy with our Upcycle dress! I feel both crafty and thrifty! 

One of these days I'm going to stop sewing like a crazy person, but whatever. Not today.