Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Creative Outlet

I've had an idea bouncing around in my head for a little while now, but yesterday I brought the idea to life.

I've had this dress in my closet for a long time (a hand-me-down from my sister), but have never worn it, because it is made of stretchy/clingy material and just didn't look quite right or fit quite right as a dress. It "clung" in the wrong places if you know what I mean. Well, I've seen lots of these longish, flared out tops people are wearing these days and had the idea of transforming this dress into a long shirt instead.

So here's what I did:

The dress


The dress after I cut out 7 1/2" from the waist area.

(I took the extra fabric from the middle, rather than the bottom, because I wanted to keep the flared part intact. If I had hemmed it straight from the bottom the
shirt would have STILL clung in all the wrong places. :)


The "shirt" before stitching back together.

I also added 2 darts in the front bottom section because the bottom was "wider" than the top, so by creating 2 darts it helped bring in the bottom section so I could easily pin it together before sewing.


The shirt after being sewn back together.


A close up of the new waist area.

The bottom seam is where I sewed the pieces back together. The top seam is a "fake" seam I sewed to create the look of the band. It looked better this way than having just the single bottom seam.


A picture of me wearing it. This is a horrible picture because I was taking it of myself while looking in the mirror. When I wear it I'll try to get a better picture of me "modeling" it.


I had so much fun just playing around and seeing if I could get it to come out the way I had it pictured in my head. It is pretty close!

6 comments:

Susanna Rose said...

How impressive! I can't believe you were able to do it so quickly and it looks really cute! I love that style too!

Jana said...

Thanks Susanna! I'm excited that it turned out so well. :)

Anonymous said...

Very creative. I'm proud of you!

Also, I like your contacts. (Actually, I can't see your contacts, so maybe it would be more appropriate to say I like your absense of glasses. Anyway, you look pretty.

The Vinsons said...

Wow! Great job! The dresstop and contacts look great. It was great to see you on Sunday. Take care, Kim

Andria said...

Wow Jana - you have been so blessed with so many talents!
The shirts looks great and I love the fit!

Betsy said...

you are so creative and talented!