As my
confidence with sewing has increased I’ve moved on from just producing children’s
clothes and have started to sew a few more things for myself, sometimes for fun
and sometimes for necessity. I love second hand clothes and will happily trawl
charity shops and eBay to find pieces I like at a low cost.
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| Zip front blue dress |
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| Red and white dress |
Here are
two dresses I’d bought second hand for a couple of pounds each online but, after a good
few months of wear, I thought they needed a bit of a revamp, mainly because the
blue one was a tad short on its own (I tended to wear it with leggings and a
jumper for precisely this reason) and the tulip skirt of the red and white
dress was a little too restrictive for my liking. And so a Molly Ringwald
style mashup ensued!
For
those of you not familiar with Molly Ringwald she enjoyed the height of her
fame in the 1980s in several – fantastic – John Hughes films, including The Breakfast
Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. It’s in Pretty in Pink that Molly’s
character chops up two (actually quite nice looking dresses) and makes one new
dress for her prom (which, outside of the 1980s, doesn’t actually look so great). Hence this project has been nicknamed ‘the Molly Ringwald dress’,
although I should point out I have no aspirations to write an agony aunt column for the Guardian, and I had every intention of ensuring the finished dress
actually looked nicer than the sum of its parts.
The blue
dress was originally from Tesco and is a medium weight fabric with a slight
stretch, so highly versatile. The red and white dress is from H&M and the
fabric varies: the top is a thin and flimsy jersey while the red skirt is a
heavier cotton mix. I decided not to touch the top of the dress as I’d probably
wear something over it anyway as it’s too sheer to wear on its own. Since it
was the tulip skirt that was the problem I planned to cut slits into the skirt
and sew in triangles of fabric from the blue dress.
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| Unzipped all the potential is visible |
Because
both dresses were a good weight of fabric both cut easily and with minimal
fraying. I used a basic straight stitch on the inside with a zip zag on the
seam allowance to prevent fraying. I found it a little tricky to get the point
of the triangle stitched in neatly and ended up doing a little hand sewing to
finish the pleats off ok. The most important thing however was to be sure that
the hems of the new panels matched the existing skirt exactly. One of the handy
things about reworking old clothes is that with careful planning you can make
life easier for yourself, i.e. using the existing bottom edge for the new hem.
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| Blue triangles of fabric and the red dress marked ready to cut |
The
finished dress definitely shows more than a little of an 80s influence, part
punk/part preppy, and I wouldn’t look out of place in the background of the
party scene in Some Kind of Wonderful. I love the contrast of the orangey red
and the black/blue print. Going from what was previously a tulip skirt to
basically a circle skirt means it is far more wearable, even if I am still
modelling it with leggings.
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| Panels in place |
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| Circle skirt |
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| Still rocking the cardigan and leggings combo |
Another
successful upcycling project where second hand clothes have been given a third
lease of life, preventing sending fabric to landfill unnecessarily while also
having a bit of fun with my wardrobe.
All
blog content and photos are Copyright of Charisse Sayers Proofreader &
Copywriter www.charisse-sayers.com I
welcome all feedback and would love to know your thoughts so please get in
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