Quick thrifty dress

 Do you remember the top from my charity shop finds last week?

I couldn't decide whether to try and turn it into something else to wear, maybe a skirt, or whether to just chop it up for a quilt.

A few days ago a friend was throwing out some clothes in the recycling, and let me have a rummage first. I found this top:



Can you see, it's got a pretty ruffle around the neck.

 It was brand new but she'd decided it wasn't her kind of thing. It's not really something I'd wear either but it clicked in my head with the top from last week and I thought I could combine them to make something that Venetia would definitely wear.



Can you visualise it yet?

 It's an adult top so I chopped it off at the top of the straps and shortened them to fit Venetia. It didn't need any more altering, it's a stretchy figure hugging top so it wasn't at all baggy even on a 6 year old. Now to add a skirt to it. I chopped off the top as high to the arm holes as I could.

I didn't iron it at this point so it kept the tiny gathers in place that were there in the top.

I checked the length on Venetia and then just sewed the 'skirt' to the vest top right sides together and ironed it back down. That was it. Probably about 10 minutes work.

And she loves it...

Already I find it hard to picture the skirt part as a top, although it was a very pretty top it feels like it was always supposed to be a skirt now.

 She doesn't need any more dresses since we frequently find beautiful dresses very cheaply in Charity Shops without needing to sew them together but it was fun to do. And I've still got the rest of the top with the sleeves (and some pretty buttons!) to do something else with - perfect in a mini quilt I'm thinking!

Back tomorrow, Sally.