Refashioned Garments

I refashioned my two me-made dresses and rtw cardigans, the progress started in September last year, very slow sewing but in the end, I'm happy that I managed to refashion four garments in seven months 😃 Well, I have more plans for the future but I'll talk about that in another post.

The progress was fun and easy, I shared each of them on my Instagram except the grey cardigan. So, today I decided to write more details in this blog.

Printed Blue Cotton Dress.

I made this printed blue dress in November 2019 using Jijaka print fabric that I bought during our trip to Singapore, I found it in the Spotlight store.  

For the pattern, I used Burdastyle, hacked into a button-down dress with a v-neckline. Also, I added a final touch in the sleeves with a little vent finished with a button.

I love this dress so much and wore it a lot after I finished it, but too bad I gained a few kilos and it didn't fit me. So, instead of giving this dress away, I decided to mend it.

I used a very easy and simple mending method to up-size the dress 😀 Added a band in both sides of the dress from the sleeve to the hem and I was lucky I had enough leftover fabric to make the bands.

The first thing I did, remove the stitches on both sides using my seam reaper. 

And then, I cut the fabric for the band 5 cm wide and the length was measured from the sleeve to the hem. Added 1.5 seam allowance.

After that, I pinned the band and the dress right sides together, stitched and I did the same on another side.

Sewed the sleeve and hemline with a blind hemstitch.

The picture below shows the inner look of the dress at the side after I sewed the raw edges using an overlocker machine.

After mended the sides and happy with the fit, I found out that the dress had a hole in the front below the last button. So, I decided to fix it, I fused the fusible tape in the wrong side of the fabric and hand sewed the hole. The result was lovely and invisible because the black thread matched nicely with the prints.

Here is the look of the dress from the side, if you see carefully there is a band 😊

I'm happy that I can wear this dress again. I love the fit and the simple design, also the cotton fabric is perfect to wear in our hot and humid weather. This picture was taken three weeks ago during our staycation in the local hotel and also, I shared it on my Instagram for my entry to #sewapril2021 challenge Day 17 with the theme "woven fabric dress". 

Yellow Tunic Dress.

About the yellow dress, I made it in 2017. I used cotton fabric in yellow that was a souvenir from our trip to South Korea. For the pattern, I used Burdastyle 04/2017 Tunic Dress. Here is a link for the old yellow dress in case you are interested.

The mending process was the same as the blue dress and as I don't have the leftover fabric, I used black cotton fabric for the bands. I love the result, especially the color-blocked effect 😊

This picture was taken in February last year during our weekend walk and couldn't resist asking my husband to take a picture near a big aquarium with some yellow fishes 😊

Beige Cardigan.

This beige color cardigan was a gift from a friend, as I gained weight this cardigan was too tight. I decided to add almost the same color lace band on both sides. The mending process was the same, cut the sides, pinned the band and sewed with the sewing machine.

The result was really cute and I love it. The lace made the cardigan prettier and special. 

Grey Cardigan.

The last one is the grey cardigan, I bought it some years back in size S and it's still new because I wasn't wearing it much. So, I decided to buy a lace band but no stock of light grey color. I bought the dark grey band and attached it to my cardigan. I love the color-blocked effect and I'm glad that I have a new cardigan in my wardrobe in case anytime I need it.

I think is more than enough for today's post, thank you for stopping by. I'm off to sewing an a-line denim skirt and hope to show you as soon as I finished.

Stay safe and well, happy sewing friends 💗