A tale of two dresses

Between being away for work for four days last week (but a bonus was a quick visit to the Liberty store in London before catching my Eurostar home) and no internet connection at home for the past five days (finally fixed tonight), I haven't been on line much lately. However, without so much screen time to distract me, I have managed to get quite a bit of sewing done last weekend and so far this week. I'm racing through spring/summer clothes refashions for the children, as we're going to Provence in 10 days and anticipating nice warm weather. So look out for a number of posts in the next week or so. For now, here's a tale of two dresses...

The full story is over on my blog (and it's a long post), but in essence, I took two dresses that my daughter had outgrown and turned them from dresses into skirts.

Dress 1 before

Dress 2 before

And after...

What made working on these two at the same time such an interesting experience was the difference in quality. The first skirt came from a musty, old-fashioned children's clothing store that sells clothing of no brand at all, or at least no known brands. (For those of you who know Paris, I can't remember the shop's name, but it's not far from the Place des Ternes in the 8th.) The dress was very pricey, at least for me, but it was made to last (with a deep hem and heavy cotton fabric). And when I took it apart, it was clear that it had been at least partly handmade. The second dress came from Cyrillus, a middle of the range French chain. It wasn't that much less expensive than the first dress. But it was not at all of the same quality. The fabric was lighter, the finishing was less nice and the hem was the usual small one you get on most clothes these days. To me, this shows the difference between ready to wear and handmade (or at least hand finished). 

Given how much I paid for each dress, I'm so glad we'll now get at least more one summer, probably two, out of them as skirts. In the end, the first dress, and quite possibly the second, will amortize over five years. Not bad for children's clothing these days, which is usually so disposable and cheaply made.

Finally, the wonderful first dress also got reused in a little present for me! I turned part of the bodice into a small zip bag. It was super simple to do and I'm so chuffed by this unexpected item. And I still have plenty of bits of fabric left from both dresses, will probably make some hairbands, rosettes or barrettes from them. Hurrah for refashioning!