Little Bit Boho Zippity Zig Zag

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.

Cute Boho dress

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.

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:)

all pieces separated, then ruffles are sewn end to end

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.

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.

putting a gathering stitch in the soon to be top ruffle

Sewed the gathered ruffle unto the existing ruffle

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.

Finished seam that sewed shirt and ruffle together

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;)