Target clearance racks are my friend. I found this dress. That one there on the left.
Check out that clearance tag. What! $3.24. Sold.
It was a little short, so I bought the biggest one. I peeled back the clearance tag when I got home to find that it was once a swim coverup. I guess that is why it was so cheap. Summer is over.
Chambray is a weird fabric for a swim coverup..don’t you think? It get’s all splotchy when it’s wet. I turned it into a dress. So we hopefully won’t have that problem.
I made a little tutorial for this because you can pretty much do the same thing with any frumpy and/or too short dress you find.
Here’s what I did:
-sewed up the slits
-lengthen dress
-cinch waist with exposed casing
-narrowed sleeves
Get rid of slits
My “swim cover-up” had two little slits on the side. So, in order to lengthen the dress, the first thing I did was unpick the seams of the slits.
Then flatten them out and pin together. Sew to match the current side seam.
lengthen dressMeasure the bottom edge of your dress and cut a 4-8″ strip (depending on how much length you want to add) from your colorful fabric. You may have to sew two strips together to get it to match your bottom edge length.
Finish edge. I serged, folded over and sewed at 3/8″
Sew the short edges together, then pin it to the bottom edge of your dress, right sides together.
Sew it on at 3/8″. Finish seam allowance.
Cinch waist
For the exposed casing, cut a strip 3″ wide. I made mine much longer than needed and trimmed it later. Press over 1/2″ on each long side.
Lay it on the dress and pin it down. You may want to try on the dress and mark your waist before pinning the casing on. Make sure it is nice and straight as you pin it all the way around. Start at the side seam.
Thread elastic through using a safety pin. You’ll want the elastic to be slightly smaller than your natural waist. Sew it together.
Trim the casing edge and fold over. Sew it up.
sleeves
I took in the sleeves by simply sewing from the armpit to the end of the sleeve, taking in about 1/2″ the whole way.
Done!
So next time you see a frumy dumpy three dollar dress…it might be worth considering! Maybe you have one in your closet that could use this treatment!
Love the re-do annd the fact that you now have an awesome dress for less than 5 dollars!
WOW! It looks awesome!! Great refashion!
I love how you always think out of the box. Great idea!
Totally genius…
Wow! Looks fantastic! I need to start altering my clothes because I have such a hard time fitting my “high waist”. But I’m determined to loose some more weight before buying any clothes…kinda my motivator I suppose! Maybe I can do something half this cute : )
I’ve totally seen those dresses at Target and they are so ugly, but you made it look fabulous! Great job!
great job!
is that a Merona?? apparently you didn’t know they had a coupon last week (may still have it) for $3 off a Merona item. so that means you could have gotten it for 24 cents ;-) I picked up a shirt for 74 cents last week.
Super cute! I love projects like this and I love the target sales racks as well!
liZ
(simplesimonandco)
Great idea!!
So very cute and smart. I love the fabric you chose, and I’m amazed at your ability to see the potential in such a frumadump shirt!
Love this! Great fabric choice!
great job! And yes, seeing potential is such a boring dress is impressive! You’ve inspired me to try to keep a better eye out!
What is that wonderful fabric? I love it.
jowestfoot (at) hotmail.com
You are AMAZING! Oh I wish I could sew and think of ideas like that! Will be following you!
What a fun idea! If only I had some sewing skills :)
The dress looks great! I wish I could think of potential projects like that when I look through the clearance rack!
That is pretty amazing. I wish my eyes saw things like that when I went to the thrift store.
Well done. It takes a good eye to see such a gem in the rough. :)
Thats awesome! I recently bought a sewing machine and one of my goals is to repurpose more inexpensive clothes..what an inspiration!!
this is too clever and too cute! I really appreciate the details on how you transformed this! Seems totally do-able the way you’ve described! Thanks for sharing your smarts! Would love it if you came over and linked this up to the WWWW party!
http://itstoilegood.blogspot.com/2011/10/whatcha-workin-with-features-and-better.html
oh my gosh I love it!thanks for sharing!!
Hi, I am your newest gfc follower, wow I love what you did! I too love doing refashioning of clothes, Karima
http://www.karimascrafts.com
THANKS since i have gift cards for target, but there clothes are always to big/fit weird! i might actually attempt something
great job!
a wonderful idea, so pretty! thank you for sharing!
This is such a great idea!!
Wonderful tutorial!
Oh, thanks for sharing the “how-to” – I appreciate seeing the details instead of a just a finished product. Great job.