The Fabric Jungle Challenge

Recently The Fabric Jungle   put out a creative recycling challenge and I have had a skirt that I was going to make into a dress for my 3 year old for over 4 months now so I decided to take up the challenge as well as make it into a tutorial as well.

I bought this skirt at the local charity shop for 2 dollars and what I like about it is that the zip is at the side so I only have to make any adjust on one side.

So the first thing to do was to put the skirt on my daughter and mark where to cut the skirt so it will fit around her chest.

Then using my taylor's chalk and ruler I marked where to cut the dress (the off cut will be used to make the straps).

Now pin and sew on the marked line.

Cut of the excess material for the straps.  If you do not have a overlocker or a sewing machine that has a zigzag stitch you might like to use a pair of pinking shears to cut off the excess material.

To finish the cut seam I actually used my overedge foot on my sewing machine to stop the material from fraying.  And please forgive the sewing as this is the first time I have used this foot (which is embarrassing as I have had this machine for over 4 years now).



Overedge Foot

Overcasting using the zigzag stitch with the
Overedge foot.



Now for the straps.  First I put the dress back on my daughter to make sure that it fits, then I marked where to place the straps.



Strap placement



With the off cut material from the dress, I folded it in half and pressed it flat and using my sewing and knitting gauge ruler I marked the width of the straps.  I chose to make them 1 1/2 inches wide.


Stitch along the marked line and cut off the excess material.  It is up to you if you would like to finish the edges off for fraying but I did not bother as you will not see it.

Turn the straps the right way out.  I used a large knitting needle to do this.

Iron flat making sure that the seam is in the middle of the strap so it will not be seen after sewing.

At each open end I decided to use an overcasting stitch again but you can turn the material inwards and sew a straight stitch.

(Just a quick note, I did measure the length that I needed the straps to be but unfortunately I didn't have enough material to make the length that I wanted so after pressing I cut the straps exactly in half.)

Now to just pin and sew the straps to the dress.

And here you have it:

This skirt was the perfect length for my daughter so I did not need to touch the hem of the skirt but of course if you have a skirt that is too long you will need to measure from the chest down to where you wish the skirt to be and redo the hem.

And here is my happy girl with her new dress.  I added 2 red heart buttons to the bottom of the straps as I loved the red buttons that appear above the zipper on the side.



Oh dear! look at that hair!!!

Happy Sewing!!!!