Home >> a new little altered dress

Mmmm, sleep? Or create? CREATE!

Had an idea last night, so I opted to forgo sleep to make a little dress. I found a cute shirt for Miika a few weeks ago with the intention of turning it into a dress, but until last night, I wasn’t quite sure how.

Yesterday was a blustery day and Miika was “bored,” so I proposed that we make a kite. We did. We ran around with it and it got up about 15-20 feet, but kept nose-diving to the ground. And it was really too cold to be outside. But, while I was rummaging through a box of scraps for the kite, I came upon some nice pieces for that dress idea…she wore one like this to church and it dawned on me that it was the solution for the shirt!

So, after everyone was tucked in bed, I made this dress for Miika:

Just cut the shirt a few inches below the arms. The bottom of the dress is 4 rectangles sewn together and gathered at the top. I top stitched the center plaid and hemmed the bottom, then pinned the skirt bottom to the shirt top. The shirt already had the flower jewels and sparkles on it, but I added 3 buttons with beads to the center for some extra details. At the most, it took about 2 hours to make. I probably paid $1.50 for the shirt and had all the other bits in my stash of fabric, buttons and beads.

I’m always scavenging for treasures at garage sales and thrift shops. I found a huge bag of beads last summer for a buck (worth about $50, if I’d bought them at a bead shop). Miika and I sorted them one day and put them in an old printer’s tray, but they got all dusty just sitting out, so I splurged on some plastic bead boxes with lids that all fit in a nice nylon bag. Now all the buttons and beads are organized and easy to find.

So, I’m not sure where all this stitching at midnight will lead, but I have some BIG ideas. I feel like there are some big puzzle pieces coming together for the future.

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