Little Red Dress to Apron Refashion

I found this little red sundress that I really loved. It was $2.00 at the second hand store and it was like new in condition. 

The only problem was it was really tiny. My size is a XL and this dress is a teeny tiny small. I bought it anyway because I loved it. Not knowing what I would do with it, I hung it up where I could look at it for a while. I find that works really good for me. In my sewing room I have a hanging hook that allows me to study a garment before I decide what to do with it. My idea turned to making the dress into a simple apron that I could wear around the holidays. One day I was shopping around at the kitchen store and I found an apron that looked like a dress that I really liked. It was $78.00, which I found was way out of my apron budget. It was so easy to take this dress and make it into a beautiful halter apron and the total cost was $3.00. Much better than the kitchen store apron. I cut a four inch section from the back of the dress and added a seam finish.

The next step was to add ties for around the waist. It already had a neck strap. I was amazed how easy it was to take such a small dress and make it fit me.

I love wearing aprons when I cook and craft especially when I am dressed up. There is nothing worse than ruining a good outfit from mishaps. You can see all of my refashion on my blog at www.cheriesforgetmenots.com. It took me a few minutes and the results are wonderful.

I hope you can find a little dress to refashion into a functional apron too. It was worth my time.

Cherie

Lacey cutwork skirt size small reworked into size 14 with a yoga style waistband

Hi I am Cherie from www.cheriesforgetmenots.com. I live in Campbell River a small city on Vancouver Island Canada.

This is my first post on Refashion Co-op and I am very thrilled to be here. I have a whole pile of clothes to refashion in the future. Some I have purchased and others have been given to me. My Mom passed away this past spring so I have tons of her old clothes just waiting to be personalized. Being that I am a size 14 I find myself prefering to have a longer shirt to cover my stomach, which is my least favourite body part. I also love clothes that are very feminine, with ruffles and such. I have many years of sewing experience as I started sewing at the age of twelve in four H sewing club. The first thing I ever sewed was a blouse and skirt. Not quite the usual pillow or pot holders. I then had lessons from my Mom who used to own a fabric store and give sewing lessons. In high school I took my first year of college level pattern design ( I had an amazing teacher). There were only two of us that year that took the advanced sewing class, the rest of our classmates took the regular sewing class. When I graduated I made my own dress with a beautiful off the shoulder cut lace shawl collar.

 I made tons of clothes for my kids when they were little, I loved making little smock dresses to go over an eyelet underdress and little matching coats and hats. It was fun as long as they wanted to wear them. When my middle daughter turned five she began to ice skate and progressed to figure skating. I started out making all of her dresses and then I started to make dresses for other skaters too. It was so much fun making beautiful dresses embellished with plenty of glitter, sequins, beads and rhinestones. This is one of my daughters favourite dresses. It was the first time I added a silk skirt. She never wanted anything else but silk for her skirts after this one.

My husband was the only mechanic in town going to work covered in glitter. That stuff sticks to everything. I have now turned my talents to quilting (especially baby quilts) and clothing for myself. I find it very hard finding clothes that fit me the way I want them to. The only solution to that is to make them myself. I am very inspired by the others on this blog. I have been reading other bloggers posts for a while now. It is always one of the first things I open in my inbox. Thanks for adding me to this list of inspiring sewers.

My first project that I am posting is a couple of skirts that I refashioned from a size small to a size 14 with a yoga pant waistband on both.Unfortunately I did not get before pictures of the skirts, but I will be sure to the next time I refashion. This picture is one I found on the net that is very similiar to the skirt I started with.

The full gathered waist allowed me to resize this skirt from a small to a size 14. Here is the before and after.

The other skirt is a light chambray skirt that also started as a size small. I have always wanted one like this. Here is the finished skirt.

You can find the pattern and instructions for these refashions on my blog at my blog www.cheriesforgetmenots.com. The post is Lacey cutwork skirt size small reworked into size 14 with a yoga style waistband HERE.

I am looking forward to many future posts of refashions I am just waiting to start

Thanks Cherie