Reposting for Cardigan Empire!! Happy Thrifty sewing!
See the Bridesmaid dresses above? Watch what they came below. As far as dresses go, they weren't awful. But I no longer wore it.
Thrifty Recycled Christmas Dresses...which also happen to be stunning.
I have 3 daughters. This year, I did something I have yet to do - make Christmas dresses for all my girls. A few years back I made 2 flower girl dresses for my sister's wedding but this is the first time making 3 Christmas dresses. I adore each one of them. All simple and fit their personalities and they fit well too! Phew! Made headbands as well.
Now on these dresses. It is no secret that in the past year we both have become an even greater fan of thrifting and recycling clothes. In fact, it has been since August that I bought something brand new for myself to wear. Anyway, I made a decision a couple months ago that I would follow suit in making my girls Christmas dresses. Every component would be thrifted or something I already had in my stash of fabrics. For the girls, the red taffeta came from the skirt I wore for our other sister's wedding and the leftover fabric in my stash. The black fabric was in my stash of fabric too. I can't remember why I bought it. The white accents came from a goodwill $1 shirt that I bought knowing I would use it for the accents - it was the perfect fabric. (I have bought a few things like this on dollar day - a great way to buy buttons too.) It is the sash on L's dress and the fabric flower on her headband the tuxedo accent on C's dress. The black accent on K's is also from my stash. It was literally scraps. I then had all the interfacing, elastics, and buttons needed to complete the dresses. The only thing I purchased ($3) was the pattern for the black dress. The other two I either didn't use a pattern or modified one I already had. So not counting items from my supplies and stashes of fabric, I spent a grand total of $4 on 3 Christmas dresses for my girls. (And several hours of course...)
Now L knows how to pose - she is 8. All perfectly tied up from head to toe. We went thru 3 quick fittings to get this right and now she is in love! The first try on erupted in tears. The arms felt wrong. The neck was wrong. But I tweaked and altered the underarm seams and pinned, added a temporary sash, took her to the mirror and her face lit up like New Year's Eve. She loved it. The final verdict? "Mommy, I love it. It is so comfy!" Not something I expected from the first tears about weird armpits. I had a pattern Butterick B4910 which I made as a size 5 nightgown years ago. She is not a 5 anymore. I tweaked and altered to make a bigger version and cut the sleeves long, not knowing what she would want. We folded and pinned until we found the gathered puff sleeve you see here. It is elasticized around the bottom.
And C can pose too - she is 6. Once we found this tuxedo inspired dress, we knew it was the perfect dress for her and it fit right on the money - gotta love that. I made it with an fairly lightweight black taffeta I had in my fabric stash. If I could change anything it would be to a heavier weight fabric but I worked what I had. Sure, I could have gone and bought 1.5 yards of fabric but this worked. To make the white tuxedo bib, I cut the hem from the bottom of a white blouse and used the finished edge as the edge of the ruffle and gathered the cut edge. I had some lovely mother of pearl buttons that are just too sweet. I love this kid - her missing teeth might possibly be my favorite part of Christmas 2009.
Obviously K wasn't interested in modeling. K is 19 mo old. You can't see the matching 2" black band at the bottom. It looks like the sash. This was literally scraps that I had to back with another black cotton fabric to make the sash and hem substantial. This is basically a peasant top made longer and I made it without a pattern but it followed the basic instructions found in this tutorial. I had found one years back and wrote down notes but didn't have the website any longer. In this tutorial it suggests lightweight fabric but this taffeta is fairly heavy weight and I think it made a nice dress.
