I have been wanting to make a dress for Miss Magoo, but honestly my sewing skills are not that great yet, so the idea of spending a bunch of money on fabric with the chance I might ruin it doesn’t sound like a wise idea. So, I’ve been looking through clothes and the yard sale boxes, and I found a shirt to use to make her a dress.
I know it’s pretty early in my pregnancy to already hate my maternity clothes, but on the 3rd round, I’ve already spent too much time with some of them! So an unflattering maternity shirt got the axe this time!
I lined up the buttons on a dress that Miss Magoo loves with the buttons on the maternity shirt and traced it. The fact that I don’t follow patterns freaks my mom out a little bit, and if you’re a sewing expert you will probably cringe. Especially when I tell you that I did my tracing with a Sharpie marker! I think that might be blasphemy for the great seamstress!
As you can see in #3, I traced giving extra space for seam allowance, and because I wanted it to be a full skirt.
After tracing it, I cut it out, cutting through the front and back layer of the shirt at the same time, so they would match. In retrospect, I should have folded the shirt in 1/2 so that both side would match, but I didn’t think of that until after I’d cut it out.
So I found an old dress of Miss Magoo’s to cut pockets out of. It was pink, which is what Miss Magoo wanted, and I thought the lining was cute. I used a pocket pattern from an apron pattern I have to make this, but a simple half circle would have worked just fine.
My finished pictures are a bit rough. Miss Magoo was really excited about the new dress, and I couldn’t get her to hold still. She was all over the place! (Plus, she refused to take off her socks.) While it didn’t turn out as wonderfully as I had envisioned, I’m happy with the fact that she loves it.
Have you ever refashioned or upcycled something? Do you have any tips?
Miss Magoo thinks that she wants to do some sewing too, but she’s obviously too small for that! So I’m thinking about getting her this Alex Toys Crafty Fashion Show, Alex Little Hands Art Series, so she can “make” outfits for the little people while I’m sewing. Have you seen any other toys that would be good for her?
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