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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A Jeans Skirt From A Vintage Dress

I love this dress. I wish it was large enough for me, but it's a size 8. Not a regular size 8, either, more like a skinny housewife size 8. It came with a fabric covered belt,too. I decided to use a denim skirt made by l.e.i for this one, the skirt had small holes in, even though it seemed to be like new. Both the dress and the skirt were free, so I can practice away! And the skirt is a size 7 but much larger than the size 8 dress....weird.


The first thing I did was cut the dress apart at the waist seam.

I have it folded down some in this photo..check out that nice belt! Too bad it's about 3 or 4 inches too small.....I'll have to think on what to do there; I have lots of elastic :D

The top is made real cute,too....wonder how big I can make it?? lol The fabric under the dress in the two photos is something I'm considering for a top using the bodice of the dress.....maybe. It does match really well, it's an off white with a white floral.

Once you've cut the skirt fabric to the length you prefer, baste stitch the raw edge and then pull the thread to gather it to the size you need it to be to fit the cut edge of the denim.



See what I did?? That's an example of what NOT to do :D The white thread is too obvious and not very neat....and plain.

ahh.....think about that!


So I ripped out the white and used light blue with this stitch. Not much better but still........oh, okay, it's the elastic thread stitch, and I forgot to change it after I hemmed some sleeves! I thought it was cute, so I left it..



Did you notice the blue stains on the skirt? I didn't until after I took the picture. It must've happened when I washed it. It seems like the colors were sort of painted on...it smeared where some of the blue flowers touched when it was wet. Think think think...what would McGuyver do?? Pull out the thread, bend a pin and go fishing......
NO...we're not going fishing til the skirt is finished...
Well, I found some fake flowers in the same shade of blue, I could glue some on with seed bead centers....or I could cut some flowers out of this soft white lace curtain and stitch them over the stains...yeah, I'll go with the lace flowers. It's softer, and no one will have to sit on beads.



This works, it looks very delicate on there. Nice camouflage! Anyway, the front looks good, tomorrow the back will look good after I fill some more bobbins and find a new machine needle. Yep, took over an hour to sew those suckers on. Maybe I can finish the belt to go with this skirt.

*********************
Fishing? hehe
how about flounder?? my son's friends sent us over some, and I fried it up this evening. My daughter had already made burritos and tacos....what a meal! lol They've been gigging several times. No oil yet. Everybody's out gettin' while the gettin's good.



Go make something!
kudzu

4 comments:

concretenprimroses said...

good tutorial for a wonderful idea.
I have two pieces that if I put them together like this might become wearable!
I wore a size 8 when I was a skinny teenager 40 years ago. I think it is equivalent to todays size 4. So your dress may be quite vintage and that's why it seems so small for an 8.
Kathy

The JR said...

We both seem to be on a sewing craze, although you are getting a lot more done than I am.

I still have trim to sew on 2 shirts. Tedious!!!! Will get back on it if the horse show gets cancelled out this weekend. Otherwise, sun shining, too much too do outside.

Flounder is wonderful. We'll have to make a trip down there and somebody will have to give us some good pointers on how to catch some.

Luv the shirt, good job.

Jean Tuthill said...

I love all your creations! You are so talented! And your puppies are so cute!

Kudzu said...

thanks ya'll!
Kathy, i haven't seen a size 8 in...a lot of years :D lol sure do wish that skirt would've fit me. i bet if i'd cut the fabric i found to go with it, that off white/white floral print, i could've made a new skirt from it, and used the bottom of the vintage one on the bottom of that...next time i'll think of that!

Ramona, it's been really hot and humid here so i'm working more and more on inside stuff, but i'm easily distracted and if i walk away from an unfinished project too long, i'll forget all about it! i can't wait to see your new show shirt, i love that red and sparkle!

Thank you so much Jean! those puppies are the worst bunch of spoiled rotten-ess we've ever had! the boy dog, mine...lol...actually peed on my sewing machine foot pedal yesterday!! one of us is gonna get shocked one day :D

kudzu