DEMO! Sun Dress Reconstruction

Yup, it's time for another DEMO - this one inspired by a commitment I made a month ago to not buy any new clothes for six months! I'm really wanting to embrace a consume less, create more mentality . . . but I love clothes. And I buy a lot of them. Like this stretchy knit sun dress from Target.

And some of them don't work out. Cute in the store, cute in the dressing room, not so much later on. A little too much arm showing, and well, hard to wear a bra under. Which I, er, need. But the fabric is pretty cool. And I liked the neckline and the dropped waist. So, I started cutting it apart.

DEMO: Sundress Reconstruction

So, this sun dress became a shirt! Poof! New clothes without buying any new clothes.

First, I cut the skirt off.

Then I cut the skirt in half - giving me what would become the two full sleeve parts.

I took the bottom of the skirt half, and lined the hemmed end up with the armholes of the dress.

I pinned the dress bottom/sleeves to the dress straps and the body of the dress. I didn't stitch the sleeve into a tube because I wanted to allow for the stretch in the fabric and make sure the sleeve lined up with the arm straps.

And I stitched the sleeve down - and then overlapped the edges so I could sew the arm up later.

Here, I've got both of the sleeves sewn onto the body of the garment, and the sleeves pinned into proper tubes. I did a top stitch on the right side of the garment.

Here, you can see the seam - and the hem on the sleeves.

I stitched the hem on the sleeves into a tube, and left a little slot open so that . . .

I could thread elastic through it! My favorite way to get elastic through a casing is to put a safety pin through the elastic and then use that to push through the casing.

Then I just tied the elastic in a square knot, and sealed up the casing.

Then I used a stitch ripper to take out the elastic that was putting gathers in the back of the dress.

Poof! It's a top! With sleeves!

And here I am! With upper arms fully covered - Phew! And I didn't have to buy a new shirt . . . one month down, five to go.