Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring Clean-Tuxedo Dress

Okay fellow craft addicts. I am sure you are like me with lists and lists of crafting ideas you need to get through. I swear I make a list, lose it, and remake lists all the time. I guess I just have SOOO many ideas and so little time to get them all done. Well this week for the 1 Month 2 Win It project we were told to do some SPRING CLEANING, meaning create a project that you buy nothing for. Challenging? Not for me because I have pile and piles of supplies I have collected. Honestly I did this project a while ago for the contest because I knew that I was moving this week and wouldn't have time to get it done. BUT I didn't buy anything for it. Here is what I did:

This weeks challenge was especially exciting for me because I have been dying to do something with my huge pile of "maybe I can make something out of this" clothing. Every time I go through my closet for spring cleaning, I create 3 piles. One is the donate pile, another is the trash pile, and the third is the craft pile.

Now this craft pile has been growing and growing and it was time to really evaluate the "maybe I can make something out of this" craft pile and whether or not I was actually going to do something with those clothes. But, thanks to 1 Month 2 Win It, I had the perfect opportunity to sift through those clothes and find something spectacular to make. Hence the tuxedo dress was born. I found an old tuxedo shirt my husband wore in high school when he waited tables. It was very dated but in really good condition. That is when I decided to use it as a dress for a little girl. I love the pleating on the old tuxedo shirts and it is very hard to replicate so I used that as my main inspiration. Then to make the dress more feminine I decided to add some ruffles to the bottom, and nothing says feminine as much as pink. So I looked through my scrap fabric supply and found a bunch of strips of fabric that I had used on a few baby quilts I made. They coordinated perfectly and they weren't even from the same line or manufacturer. I had to piece together several strips but with ruffles you can't even tell. Finally I went through my stash of trims and buttons. I found some yellow rick rack that I added to define the waistline and some random pink, brown, and yellow buttons to add down the front. This dress is fun and flirty, perfect for spring.
I have to tell you the shirt was U G L Y, ugly and in need of the garbage or a remake. I am just glad I had the great idea of using the pleats. I even kept the rest for another future project (as you can tell I am not too good at actually cleaning out my supplies). But I MIGHT NEED IT SOMEDAY lol. Liz grows so fast that I even added an extra ruffle to the bottom to give it some more length. It is definitely my favorite dress in her closet right now.

Like I said the last round of dresses I made for her was back in Nov and she has gotten a lot taller since then so guess what...LET THE DRESS MAKING BEGIN. I have piles of fabric and ideas ready for some cute new creations. Stay tuned as they pop up on the blog over then next month or so including an Easter dress of course. I LOVE LITTLE GIRLS.

No comments: