Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Clearance + 2nd hand + Stash = Simply Cute Dress

There are 2 dresses that Isabelle will wear any day and everyday if given the choice. That is the Valentine dress I made her and the Queen Bee dress made by Soren Lorensen Design. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why these 2 dresses appeal to her so much. Leave it to my Mom to solve the mystery -they are both fairly loose A-line dresses.

I decided that I had 2 options. I could either argue with Isa everyday about why she couldn't wear a dirty dress..again. Or I could make some more. I started shopping at our local salvage store for tees that I could cut up and reuse in the dresses - Isa really loves the graphics, bright colors, and soft material. I also scoured Target for clearance shirts. I bought tees or dresses that were either her size or bigger. You don't want to buy anything smaller than their current size since you are going to lose material when you cut these up and sew them again with at least a 1/4" seam allowance.


Soren Lorensen Design has hinted at producing sewing patterns in the future and I can't wait! In the meantime, I am making my design off the Leila & Ben's - Sweet Little Dress pattern with a few changes ( no elastic in the arm band, extra visible serged seams, etc). I used this pattern for her other favorite dress, the Valentine one, so I know it fits well and meets her design standards.

This week I made her a Mickey Mouse dress. The Mickey Mouse shirt was a St. Patrick's Day clearance item at Target. I used it for the front of the dress and I cut up the back to make new sleeves. The back of the dress is the back of a green pajama top from our local 2nd handstore. The red dress skirt is some jersey material I had kicking around in my garment fabric stash. It took maybe a 1/2 hour. We both love it!


If your princess has a Punky Brewster streak, this is an awesome way to make a ton of summer dresses for cheap and quick! This dress cost me around $5.00

I'd love to find some fun 80's music shirts to make into dress for her.. I can just see her rockin' a Rolling Stones dress!

2 comments:

kat said...

Oh, little rock tee dresses would be so cute.

Kathleen said...

Love the first picture of Isa. The dress is really cute too.

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