Friday, May 22, 2009

Yellow halter dress from hell

So Liv loved the dress-shirt-turned-kid's-dress I made her. So much so that she asked me to make another one. I had another shirt that I snagged at the same time I got the shirt for the first dress. I was all ready to repeat the process when she said that she wanted it to be a sundress for summer.

I was all planning on just making a simple elastic band across the top with thinnish straps over the shoulders when I saw the pieces left over from the first dress. (I'm not the best at cleaning up after my sewing self.) In particular, what I saw was the collar I had cut off.

At first I thought the collar would be really cool placed across the top of the elastic band, like a wide shirt collar across the dress. Then I realized that the points of the collar are shaped for the collar to be in a circle around your neck, and that when you straightened out the collar the points overlapped. No good.

But then... but then... inspiration. What if the collar wrapped around the neck? What if the collar was the strap of a halter dress? Yes, yes!

And with that, I began the project I now know as "The Yellow Halter Dress From Hell". Without any instructions or any templates or any patterns to work from, there was a lot of ripping and resewing, re-ripping and re-resewing. But in the end, I came up with a dress that I really, really love. Even better, Olivia loves it too.

The fit of the top is a bit off in these pictures. I realized the day after I took these photos that the reason it seemed too bunchy at the top was that the collar was too long. I had already taken one bite out of the back when I made the dress, but I went back and took out another tuck. Now the fit is perfect! (But the dress is dirty so I'm not retaking the photo...)

Here is a close-up of the front. The tab in the front is actually a bit of one of the cuffs. The collar is stitched down on one side, and buttoned down on the other. To put on or take off the dress, you just unbutton the one side. The buttonhole is actually the original buttonhole on the front of the collar. The bow is just something I made with a bit of the extra fabric from the sleeve. It snaps on and off (snap is hidding by the cuff-tab) so it doesn't end up in a wad after being laundered.



Toodles,

21 comments:

Janna said...

OMG!! That is such a cute dress! You are so creative and talented to think of turning a man's shirt into that adorable creation!! I LOVE it!!

Debbie Nelson said...

How adorable..I love it!! And the model is adorable too! How creative you are to make such a dress, especially with no pattern!

Jesse said...

This is so cute! I love how you've used the components of the shirt.

Unknown said...

Okay, she is one stylin' little cookie. What a FABULOUS dress!! I love it!!

Oh, and please don't feel jealous of 'my' oilcloth table cloth... it is my moms. I took that photo when I was visiting her. I'M the jealous one!!

Denise Felton said...

You are a freakin genius. We all want to be you. Really. You need to post a tute on your CG blog before somebody grabs your idea and becomes famous for it!

Oh Mandie said...

wow, what a gorgeous and summery dress!

Junque Rethunque said...

How do you get the little angel to stand sideways like that for the pictures?? ;)

Anne said...

Punkinhead - she has mega-strong leg muscles. :)

joanie said...

That looks so complicated, what a very nice mommy you are:)

Care said...

wow, i love it! i've been staring at the men's shirt i purchased to make a dress out of for days, and just can't bring myself to cut into it yet. this is fantastic inspiration! i must think outside the box!

thanks for visiting my blog, and for linking to it!

koala brains said...

WOW - I LOVE the refashion!!! You are so freakin' creative.

Ashley said...

Oh your little dresses are SO adorable! Thanks for visiting my blog! I'm bookmarking yours!

Ashley

Its So Very Cheri said...

Thank you so much for coming by my blog. I hope you will come back and check out lots of other posts. I have a give-a-way going on so come on over and join the followers list plus follow the other rules for this weeks give away.

Thank you for posting my little girl's quilt on Craft Gossip Sewing.

Cheri

Deb said...

Oh, that is so clever and so cute! I love it. Thanks for visiting my blog and for linking my tutorial to CraftGossip :).

Drea said...

That is so cute. I want one!!

Nikki said...

Your dress.... is.... awesome. Wow! Pure ingenious to use the collar as a halter neck. Wow!

carmel said...

the dress is beautiful and one of a kind!
thanks for droping by my blog and also posting my tutorial on craftgossip! it was so nice for me to see that- what a great suprize!!
thanks! and you are super talented!

Eva said...

oooh, I love this!
I guessed that bit at the top began as a cuff!
I love being right.
I also love finding things to do with all the bits of a shirt as I cut it up. Nice job with that.

Laura said...

wow,great job with this dress. you are so creative.

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