Upcycling a favored, too tight dress into something else

5 photos for those who just want to see the pictures

There’s recycling, repurposing, upcycling (rru). Each has a little bit to do with the other. Without being so technical and precise, my own definition is;

    “To take something that was one thing and do something else with it.” 

 That definition will cover it all.

I’m not new to  rru. I’ve tried it before. (Take a look at the 7th picture in that post) If you’ve read any of my other posts, you know that I’m into the recycling thing and not being wasteful.

I’m also a fan of the boho   style. I had a purple dress that had always been a favorite of mine. I purchased it from a street vendor during a Juneteenth celebration held outside of the Civil Rights Institute here in Birmingham, Alabama.  I tried it on right over my street clothes and it fit.  I altered the yoke of the dress since I claim 5’4 as my height. Otherwise, it would drag the ground.

Being my definition of a shapeshifter*, the dress became a little snug in the bosom area and I had to put it to the side. 

 Visiting Pinterest, I came upon various pictures of clothing that had been upcycled.  My plan was to cut off the top, keep the bottom, sew the bottom to a purple tee shirt, thereby making a new dress, then DYE the whole garment purple. 

First off, the tee shirt was too big. But it was only 99 cents. $1.09 with tax. I bought it big because I wanted to make sure I had enough fabric to work with. I didn't overlook that there were stains on the sleeves when I bought it. I'd cut that part off and rework it.

 I sewed the top and bottom together, had a gap, SOOOO then I chose to put elastic in the waist. Fit just fine. BUT…

The tee shirt sleeves and side were fuller than I wanted them.

 I put numerous darts in the front and back of the tee shirt. THEN

The sleeves were too full. I adjusted them and didn’t like the outcome.

Finally, I cut off the tee shirt, removed the ¼ inch elastic from the waist, and saved it. (The elastic was brand new) , made a casing in the skirt and fitted it with ½ elastic.

Now I have a perfectly good skirt that fits comfortably. The dye job will have to wait.

You want to know what happened to the tee shirt?

*My definition of shapeshifter - gain weight, lose weight. Gain weight, lose weight…

HOWEVER! To be fair, the original dress DID shrink even more after I washed it and put it in the dryer. (Not wise)

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