Turn 2 Plain Thrifted Pieces Into 1 Stunning Dress With This Makeover
I recently found two pieces of clothing at my local thrift shop with really fun prints that happened to go together, so I decided to do a merger! What is a merger, you may ask? A merger is when you take two pieces of clothing and merge them to create a new piece of clothing. In this merger, I’ll be making a dress out of a skirt and another dress. Check out my tutorial below to see how I did it!
Tools and Materials:
- Dress
- Skirt
- Butcher paper
- Marker
- Fabric scissors
- Sewing machine
- Clips
I checked out Pinterest and Google for some inspiring ideas for my design. I specifically looked for designs that mixed prints, as that’s what I would be doing in my project.
I decided that I wanted to use the skirt to create sleeves for the dress. I traced the armholes onto butcher paper and then drew out the length of sleeve that I wanted.
I wanted a ¾ length sleeve, so I measured 17 inches, which included the seam allowance.
The inseam would be 14 inches and I slightly angled it to taper the sleeve a little bit.
I also added a 1 cm seam allowance to the edge of the sleeve and cut out the pattern.
I started with the skirt by checking to make sure that I had enough to make the sleeves.
Once I was sure that I had more than enough material to create the sleeves, I cut about 11 inches off the hemline to use as a ruffle at the bottom of the dress.
Then I placed the pattern for my sleeve on the side fold of the top part of the skirt and traced it. I had a happy little accident here, with the waistband of the skirt working perfectly as the cuff for my new sleeve! I love it when things like this happen! I repeated this on the other edge of the skirt for the other sleeve.
I also removed the plackets to get rid of any unnecessary bulk.
Then I seamed the sleeves, making sure to backstitch the edge of the sleeve to secure it.
I turned the sleeve inside out and inserted it into the armhole of the dress. I matched the underarm seam and pinned it in place. I always like to start with the underarm seams and then the centerfold.
Then I sewed the sleeve in place. I repeated this process on the other sleeve.
And now my dress had sleeves!
I tried the dress on to see how much fabric I wanted to remove from it before I attached the ruffle. Once I had determined how much I wanted to remove, I placed a pin in the fabric where I wanted the hemline to be.
I cut off the excess fabric from the dress.
Tip:
When removing fabric from a garment, especially dresses and skirts, it’s helpful to work in small pieces and fold as you go. This will help keep your line as straight and even as possible.
I took the fabric from the skirt and removed the plackets.
Then I folded the fabric with the right sides facing each other, matched the side seams, and sewed them together.
I also finished the raw edge by fold it over itself and sewing it in place, and then repeating this. You could do a double-fold if you’re comfortable with it, but doing it this way is a bit easier for beginners. It was also easier to do it this way because the fabric was quite soft.
I added two rows of baste stitching to the top of the ruffle. Then I pulled one them, gathering the ruffle until it was the same width as the top part of the dress. I played with the ruffle a bit to make sure that it was evenly distributed before sewing it to the dress.
I sewed the ruffle on the right side of the fabric. I wanted the top bit of the ruffle to show, which is why I finished the raw edge earlier. I took my time with this part as I didn’t want to ruin the gathering that I had created when I pulled the baste stitch.
To pull the look together I made a belt out of the extra fabric I had from the skirt. I used a piece of fabric about 60 inches long and 4 inches wide.
I folded the fabric over itself lengthwise, with the right sides facing each other.
I left an opening at one end so that I could turn the belt right side out using a pencil, pressed it, and I was done!
I just love how this dress turned out! The patterns complement each other perfectly! Do you like to mix and match patterns? Let me know in the comments below!
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