How to Sew a Summer Dress and Save the World (DIY) - Part II

Summer dress #2 is now complete.

I was just about to send away an old shirt that was too small for me. But I just love the pattern because it’s filled with American images and feels like home (even though the shirt was purchased here in Sweden). 

What was I thinking? It would make a cute little summer dress for Mia (which seems to be my first thought for every piece of clothing I get rid of right now). Time to pull out the borrowed sewing machine and open my stash of knitted doilies that I collected a while back with good intent to decorate some funky clothing items for my little half-breed chica.

Because I have no sewing training, and because I have very limited patience for prep work, I once again did everything by eyeballing it instead of any serious pattern measurements. Big tip: using as many existing seams as possible goes a long way with my kamikaze sewing style.

It was pretty straight forward. Figure out how wide you want the straps of the dress to be, and set a pin there. Then cut from that point down towards the bottom of the shirt, creating an A form. Again, I just eyeball it.

Then I put another pin at the point that would be the bottom of the armhole. I folded over enough to make a seam and stiched around what would become the armhole area. Then, with the material wrong side out, I stiched from the armhole down the side to the bottom seam - which was already done as it was the original bottom of my shirt. Repeat same thing on other side. In the end it is a no-fuss A-frame girl’s dress.

But it’s missing something. Embellishments! In come the doilies. I tried laying a few different colors, sizes and patterns on the dress to see what fit best. These doilies were all picked up cheap at 2nd hand shops, so I’ve created a nice little stash to choose from.

In the end I chose a layered effect. The bright blue is actually an old-fashioned knitted dishcloth (properly disinfected in my washing machine, of course). With a cute little crocheted (I think) white doily accented with a couple of buttons from my collection.

I couldn’t just throw the arms of the shirt away, so I stiched a seam on the cut end and voila! A pair of matching little leggies.

I have a feeling that Mia’s summer wardrobe is going to be quite the experiment for me. Thank goodness she doesn’t mind being the guinea pig!

Until next time...
Michael

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