|day 11| Refashion Month Guest: Adele from Mammy Made

Adele from Mammy Made was one of the first people I interacted when I started House of Estrela. We met through Refashion Co-op. I've been following her ever since, she's got some clever and easy to execute ideas for refashioning your clothes. 

Hi everyone. I'm Adele and I live in England with my two gorgeous babies, Leyla who is 4 and Naomie who is 2. I am really excited to be guest posting here today. I have been a fan of Magda and her wonderful blog since the beginning of last year. Thank you so much for asking me to guest post for you, Magda. I'm honoured.

I usually blog over at Mammy Made. I like to write about crafting, cooking and homeschooling, although I am only homeschooling part time at the minute. I have tons of tutorials on there so come by and say hi, I’d love to see you! I am also currently blogging about growing vegetables in my small back yard so come and check that out :)

Today I would like to share one of my recent refashions. I turned a size 22 long skirt, made of the most beautiful fabric, into a cute dress for me :)

To make my new dress, I put my inside out skirt over my head, so the waistband was off shoulder. I made a mark where I wanted my armpit to be. On my skirt that ended up being 4.5" down from the waistband and 5.25" in from the side seam. I did a line of stitching running from 1/2" below the armpit mark down to the hem, 5.25" away from the side seam, in order to make my sleeve. I then repeated that on the opposite side to make my second sleeve.

I stitched a second line on each side, joining the armpit mark to the bottom hem of the skirt, to make a stitched triangle. This will form the side seams of the dress. (If you are a lot cleverer than me, you will make your triangle have a rounded top, rather than pointy, as my dress is quite tight under the arms. It is still wearable, I would just change it slightly next time.) I cut out the triangle on each side and zigzagged around to finish the raw edges.

Looks more like a dress now!

I folded up the hem on the bottom of the dress, just a tiny amount to hide my stitching. I had to fold quite a lot up for the hem of my sleeves, then just pulled the material taut while I stitched my line of straight stitch around. This helps to make sure that the stitches don't tear as you put the dress on. You could also use a twin needle if you had one.

I love the fact that this dress has a drawstring around the old waistband, and thanks to the way I cut the dress, it is off centre on the front. I tied it in a bow and it added a little character to the dress. I paired it with a black belt, to make the dress less sack-like, my lace choker and my pretty black wedges. I think I look quite cute, if I say so myself!

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you so much for having me, Magda :)