Saturday, November 13, 2010

Switch it…Change it….Rearrange it!!

 

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I am still a little backed up from not having my computer for 2 weeks.  So here is a much belated Halloween post.  Since Halloween was on a Sunday, I wanted Emersyn to have a dress that fit the occasion.  SOOO I used something I had on hand and made a Halloween dress.  BUTTTTT I figured Halloween is only one day a year, and I wanted the dress to be usable AFTER Halloween.  SOOO I made THE EXCHANGEABLE DRESS.  Confused???  This is what I did….

november 065I had this black dress that I bought at the thrift store for a dollar.  It was just plain and sad looking, but I bought it thinking it could still have a good life.  SOO I went onto E-bay (saved myself an expensive trip to the craft store) and bought a spool of orange tool, a bunch of velcro, and 2 yards of orange polka dot ribbon and got started.

First, I took my tool (it was 6 inches wide) and folded it down the middle.  Then I turned up my tension to 9, increased my stitch length, and ran a gathering stitch. 

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I came up with a super long piece of tool that was kinda a mess.

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I then took my messy tool strip and sewed one half of my velcro (I chose the soft side) and sewed it onto the tool.  I had to keep straightening up the tool as I went so that it was a ruffle and not all bunched up.

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I used a zig zag stitch because the tool was shifty and I wanted to make sure and catch it.

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Ta-da…..look at that crooked row of stiches:)  Good thing it was going on the INSIDE of the dress huh???:0

Then I just sewed the other half of the velcro onto the inside edge of the dress. 

Last but not least, I used black embroidery floss to make loops on either side of the dress to hold the ribbon. I didn’t get a picture of that, but it was pretty easy.  I just threaded my needle with floss and tied a knot in the end. Then I put the thread through where the skirt met up with the top of the dress on the side seam.  Then I left the loop a little bigger than the ribbon so it would not bunch up, put the needle through the same spot and tied another knot on the inside of the dress.  Pretty simple.

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Now I can just pull the ribbon out, switch out the orange tool and have a new dress.  ORRR  leave the tool on and find another matching ribbon.  ORRR….well you get the idea.

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  I already have big plans for the exchangeable dress for Christmas, Valentines, Saint Patrick’s Day, you name it.  I will keep you posted on the life of this little dress….it still has a lot of life in it:)

3 comments:

The Wieselers said...

LOVE IT!

Beth @ Wiccan Make Some Too said...

Great idea. Nothing like making a dress for a Holiday & your child never gets to wear it again. This change it dress is brilliant!

Beth said...

Great idea!