Julie Finn
Successful clothing refashion often begins with a good base component, and that’s what the premise of Sew Pretty: T-Shirt Dresses builds upon: you take a T-shirt that fits your kiddo, and use one of the book’s 25 tutorials to refashion it into a dress. It’s thrifty and eco-friendly to do, since you’re starting with something that you already own, and since these dresses are for kids, and kids are small, you’ve got a good shot at being able to sew your skirt components entirely from stash, as well.
That’s exactly what I did when I sewed this dress for my eight-year-old, using the Cool Water tutorial from Sew Pretty: T-Shirt Dresses. The dress consists of a kid’s T-shirt as the bodice, with decorative embellishments on the front, and a skirt of cascading ruffles, all built upon a stay that’s attached to the bodice. Another great thing about clothing refashion is your ability to completely personalize your garment, so because my girl isn’t into frills and pastels, our version of Cool Water is entitled Willow’s Rock Star Dress, and has pink skulls, glow-in-the-dark bats, orange flames, and a guitar player wearing a sparkly silver tutu and crown. Here’s how I made it, and how we like it:
I love it! She looks so rock and roll! I like the idea of using an ugly fabric for an underskirt, I have some ugly fabrics I would love to use up.