My upcycled life

When I was 10 years old, mom taught me how to sew.  I am so thankful for that skill!!!  In high school, we had a "sewing room" with an old kitchen cupboard.  Mom took the doors off and would purchase bolt ends of fabric and stack them in the cupboard.  The bottom drawers were full of patterns and she taught me how to take the sleeves from one pattern, the neckline from another, the skirt from another and design whatever I wanted.

A few years back, I bought a dress form.  But I have always hated how it looks with all the knobs and dials and split open parts.

One day at the thrift store, I found this long dress out of a very thin, black knit fabric and an idea was born.  Don't bother asking how I "see" these things, but I do!!!

And today was the day.....I made a cover for my dress form.  It turned out perfect!  No pattern (trust me, I searched the internet for a pattern like this!) - just a "vision" in my head.

It wasn't that hard.  I simply turned the dress inside out and put it over the dress form.  Then I pinned the seams, took it off, cut out around the pins and stitched it up.  The top cap was perhaps the most difficult, but again, I took fabric from a sleeve, laid it on top of the neck and traced an oval.  Then I pinned that into the neck, much like you would pin a sleeve into an armhole.

Now I can have it in my room and it's not quite the eyesore I thought it was!  An upcycled dress - total cost was $4.99.

My next project....I have this old sweater that I have always thought looked like "grandma's" so I'm going to alter it.  Again, I have the idea inside my head.....I just need a few days to turn it into that "vision".