Refashion It! The Stripy Sweater Dress

Hellooo sewing nerds!

After a nice long weekend I have yet another refashion project for you! This thime I cut apart a sweater dress (yes, again) and at the same time recycled one of my old tops.

Here’s the ‘before’ pic of the dress which I recently got from a friend for refashion purposes (Yes, my friends do that now. And I love it. But I always mention that there’s no gurantee of ever getting it back in one piece. Chop, chop 🙂 )

Really not a ‘bad before’, but the dress was a bit too short for my liking and the waist part bothered me a bit. It just looked as if something was missing. Although I could’ve added a belt or so, I got it for refashion purposes. I had to cut it apart.

The dress looks a bit cinched at the waist, because the waist part of the knit fabric is ribbed. I thought it would make an easy waistband/hem.I found this little black number in my refashion stash. It had grown shorter over the years  and it also had the name of the label printed on it in far too big letters (that’s because the person I got it from used to work in one of their stores).

I chopped off the hem (and the print) and sewed it onto the waistband of the skirt using a ballpoint sewing machine needle and an overlocking stretch stitch.

I pressed the seam allowance down and, to fix it in place, used hemming web (Thanks, Amy, for the tip!). This fusible hemming web really helps a lot when sewing with knits. It prevents the seams from stretching too much, which happens for example when you machine hem a knit fabric.

I just finished the raw edges with a zig-zag stitch to prevent the fabric from unraveling, folded the edge over and hemmed it with the fusible hemming web. To be on the safe side, I hand-basted the hem of the top, as well.

So, now I’ve got a super comfy sleeveless knit/jersey dress which can be worn with or without the top. The skirt has the perfect length now and also fits much better than before.

I prefer to wear both separately. The skirt together with the cropped top looks a bit 90’s, but it’s all back in style (see CHANEL’s 2014 haute couture collection!), hehe.

I loooove to combine it with other knit dresses. This is my favourite combination, also great because I can wear all these sleeveless jersey dresses in cold weather now. Sooo comfy, I’ve been wearing it all weekend.

Did you spend the weekend sewing?

♥

facebook/bloglovin/pinterest
Stay in touch!