Another Remake...

So last year I gave away 5 large construction garbage bags full of clothing. They were mostly filled with dresses and pants. I held onto most of my sweaters, tops and tanks. I thought they could always be taken in or refashioned.

Fast forward to this summer and my drawers are overstuffed and I'm a little annoyed so I've decided to remake some of the pieces or donate them. I'm going through a drawer at a time (cause that's all I can handle) putting some things in a donate pile, a piece or two in a refashion pile and refolding the rest and putting them back in the drawer.

I'm slowly but surely clearing things out...which brings us to this refashion.

I sort my drawers by color because if I'm looking for a white top/sweater, I don't want to sort through 8 drawers to find one. I started this adventure with the white drawer first because it was the top drawer in my bureau. I had two of these tanks. They were part of twinsets that I purchased from QVC about 7 or 8 years ago. Somewhere I lost one of the cardigans but still had both tank tops. Since I don't need both tank tops, I decided to remake one of the tanks into a maxi dress.

This is another one of my easy breezy maxidresses that is simple to make. This time I used a bright floral rayon that I bought from fabric.com in 2011/2012. They were a part of the Van Gogh series from the Free Spirit Collection. I fell in love with these rayon prints and bought two from fabric.com and three of them from Low Price Fabrics. You can read all about it here since I actually documented their arrival. Again more pieces of fabric that I bought because I loved them and not because they actually fit into my work wardrobe at the time.

• To make this one, I cut two pieces of the fabric 45" long and serge finished both edges. 
• Then I stitched 3/4" side seams making sure to include all of the selvage markings.
• I added a line of gathering to the front and the back separately and then gathered each one about 1/2" from the side seam on either side.
• Gathered the fabric to match the front and back pieces and sewed it together.
• Pressed the seam up.
• Stitched a 1" hem into the skirt.

Construction Pictures ~

The top before I cut it off

The top after I cut it off

The dress at this point had a nice look but it was kind of loose fitting and I was seeing a closer top with a wide skirt in my mind's eye. So I went looking for a green striped ribbon that I knew was in the notions collection.

I added it to the dress right beneath the empire seam line, stitching it to the side seams. It added some interest and it allowed me to tie the bodice closer. I was worried that the ribbon with the bow was too juvenile looking for me but I think it works.

A few pictures of the completed maxi dress ~

There is a lot of fabric in this skirt and the wind blew it out so beautifully.

With the matching cardigan ~

Sometimes I think I should apologize for going my own way and not always using a pattern because it makes it hard to duplicate an item. BUT I know that I have to sew for me and this fits my lifestyle now. It was so worth it refashioning a piece that would have otherwise been donated. 

Plus I LOVE all of the extra fabric in this maxi dress. The black crochet/striped maxi dress that I recently remade has a slimmer look so I have to take smaller steps in it. I wanted something that moved & flowed and this dress more than meets that requirement. This dress makes me happy. Seriously, it's just a fun dress!

I do have a lot more sewing from the 4th of July weekend and this pass weekend to share with you. Most of it is actually from a current pattern - hahahahaha! So more items up on the blog soon.

...as always more later!