Remake: Little Girl's Pinafore

-


Some of the projects that I find most satisfying are the ones that involve making something new from an old garment. Not only is it a great way to reuse and recycle, it also enables a second wear out of a much loved item of clothing.

This particular zebra striped dress was one that I originally found in a thrift store many years ago. Back in the days when I was young and very slender, I could pull off the cute look. After two babies and ten years of aging, the dress was still super cute, just not on me. 

You might wonder why I had kept the dress for all these years, and the answer is simply that it held good memories (being the dress I wore on the morning of my wedding) and I really loved the fabric. I was sure that one day I would have a little girl who would enjoy wearing the fabric as much as I had. As I have two handsome boys though, a new dress for one of my neices is just as good. 

After gathering some measurements from my two-year-old neice, I got started on the remake. I decided to turn the black straps of the dress into the straps of the little pinafore. I unpicked the dress side zipper and used it again in the back of the pinafore for ease of dressing. Little went to waste as even the lining of the dress was reused as lining for the bodice pieces of the pinafore. I pleated up the full width of the skirt and added it while reusing some of the black waistband. Sadly some of the zebra print was lost due to a two-year-olds shorter leg length, but the beautiful pink flowers with silver glittery highlights have been well preserved. 

It's a cute remake of a cute dress for a very cute little girl. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Christmas Dresses for 5 Nieces

-
Image
At the end of last year I was feeling in need of some fresh sewing projects, so I decided to sew dresses for all of my nieces for Christmas! A friend at church had given me several large pieces of fabric some time earlier and though the colours were ones that I loved, I wasn't sure how to use them. This was the perfect opportunity! I decided to design up a simple pinafore with a waistband that was elastic at the back. To prevent the shoulder straps from slipping off the sides, I included a tie in the back of each pinafore to hold them together. The skirts were A-line in shape with little pockets on the front. A couple of the girls were similar in size, so I ended up drawing 3 separate patterns. For the blond girls, I decided not to use the black fabric, but put in a white print with little pink flowers instead. The 5 dresses all turned out quite nicely, but I was very tired of sewing the same dress by the time I finished them! Sadly I don't have any photos of them on the girls.
Read more

Yazidi Traditional Dress

-
Image
In Toowoomba, the city where I live, there is a large population of Yazidi refugees. These people fled the Yazidi genocide in Iraq in 2014. They come from the Kurdistan region of Iraq and are a minority culture and religion. They are very proud of their culture and heritage and often wear their traditional dress to weddings and other important cultural events. The traditional Yazidi dress consists of a long, loose, white dress pulled in at the waist with a sash. Over this, the women wear a black waistcoat style garment. On their heads, they have a black turban with a white or lilac veil attached to it. The turban is stuffed and decorated with gold trimmings. The traditional dress of Kurdistan, the area in which the Yazidi people live, is different. The Kurdish women wear a long dress with long trailing sleeves. Over this they wear a jacket-like overdress that reaches the floor and is split up the sides and opens in the front. The overdress is usually very decorative and has elbow or wr...
Read more