Little Bit Boho...Zippity Zig Zag
As I cleaned through my mounds and mounds of refashion possibilities this week, I came across this cute, LITTLE dress that has all my favorite colors on it. Sadly, it might possibly fit my left thigh, but not much beyond that. I needed a way to show off this Boho Chic dress, keeping all those fancy ruffles, yet make it a fit for me too!
I've been planning on making these cute little undershirts with an extension for quite some time. A lot of times of want to wear a cute shirt, but they are just not quite long enough for me to just wear legging with the amount of junk I have in my trunk (if you know what I mean). So, I need something that can extend that shirt to cover everything necessary. Today was the day! You will see more of these extended undershirts, rest assured. But here's to the first.
I started with the dress and found an off white shirt that fit a little strange in the chest anyway and matched the off white in the dress.
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Cute Boho dress |
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Off White Shirt |
I cut the sleeves off the white shirt and made a deeper V out of the neckline. I hemmed these up with just a simple rolled hem.
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I put a gray shirt underneath it so you
could see the top better. |
Next, I took the dress apart at the seams. The front ruffles I left in tack, just separating them from each other. Ignore my multitasking going on in these pictures. I was creating my trim healthy mama snacks as I cut apart fabric. I hate to waste time:)
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all pieces separated, then ruffles are sewn end to end |
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The back of the dress still in one piece. |
I used the back of the dress to cut long straight pieces to add to the top of the ruffle, because I was afraid the undershirt was going to be quite long enough to show off the ruffles as much as I wanted. I ended up being correct and the finished product still isn't quite long enough for me, but I was adjust it some other time. It worked for the day that I wore it.
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The back cut into pieces to extend the ruffle plus add a little ruffle
on top of the ruffle. |
I gathered the extra pieces about 1/4 of the way down, then sewed them on to the top of the existing ruffle. This created another top ruffle, but also gave a few inches to extend the ruffle once attached to the shirt.
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putting a gathering stitch in the soon to be top ruffle |
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Sewed the gathered ruffle unto the existing ruffle |
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A ruffle ready to be attached to the shirt |
Once the ruffle was attached, I took out the gathering stitch, sewed the ruffle together at the ends making a complete circle, then sewed that to the bottom of the shirt. It turned out that the ruffle was now too long to fit exactly, so I resewed the circle to be the size of the shirt and resewed the ruffle back in place on the shirt.
The particular fabric of the dress did not need a hem because the fabric doesn't unravel. However, the ruffles were very uneven in length at different places, so I did my best to even all that up. It wasn't perfect, but I don't think anyone but me would have noticed.
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Finished seam that sewed shirt and ruffle together |
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The finished product |
There was enough fabric left over to make a cute hippie headband. I felt like Rhoda on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. My kids thought it looked dorky, but people, I know style;)