Two Hour Dress From a Thrifted Curtain Panel For Only $3.00!! Vintagethrifter51

As soon as I saw this curtain panel in Value Village I snatched it right up.  I love the print and the bright orange, pink, gold and black and for $2.10 with my 30% off coupon, it was a steal.

The only problems with it were:

1. It had a print going the width of the fabric.
2. It was less than 2 metres long and only 1 metre wide barely enough fabric to make a dress the regular way without the interference of a width wise pattern.

But I loved the fabric so much I knew I had to make a dress out of it using the same pattern as my table cloth dress from a previous post.  So I got out the table cloth dress and used it as a pattern to cut the skirt of the dress.  I zigzagged the raw edges, sewed the front and back together and turned up the hem.

Now I had a completed skirt.  But what to do then?

I only had this much fabric left!!  So I slept on it, not literally, just left the completed skirt and the remaining fabric sit overnight and hoped for some inspiration.  I went back the next day and stared at that remnant long and hard.

And then I fold it in half, and cut out a neck hole.  That was the hardest part...to take the scissors to that remaining piece.  But I committed to it and did it.  I then zigzagged the raw edges.  Still had to think on it...had a big cup of coffee and then went back to the challenge.  I decided that the larger orange print would be my front and the more black portion would be the back.  I cut a small slit in the front portion and then got out some bias tape and stitched it around the neck opening.

Then I top stitched, making sure to use orange thread on the orange portion and black thread on the black portion as you can see in this photo.   I stitched up the sides and then...what to do, what to do?  Putting the pieces together as is, made the dress far too long.  So I whipped out my trusty sewing scissors and cut off about 10cm of the black at the top of the skirt.  I zigzagged my new raw edges.  I took fabric chalk and made marks to help me line up the patterns in the front as I am a bit visually OCD and any misalignment would drive me crazy.  Then I stitched the top and bottom together, praying all the while that it would work.  I turned the edges of the arm openings over and repeated the same colour top stitching pattern as the neck line...orange with orange and black with black.

So here is the finished dress!!!  The front view is on the left and the back is on the right.  I am so amazingly happy with how it turned out.  I figure that it is one of my best refashions from a thrifted item yet!!!  I can't wait to wear it, even my youngest daughter thinks it looks amazing.  So with the black bias tape and the tread that I already had, this dress cost me less than $3.00!!  Bargain!!  What do you think of my refashion of this curtain panel?  Cheers, Michele