Daddy's Girl

Back in October my husband took a new job which came with a much more casual office dress code than his previous job.  So he was throwing out a lot of his formal shirts. Rather than letting them go to waste I set about re-purposing them.

This 1st attempt which I'm about to share with you started out life as a dress for my 4year old.  I have only bee dressmaking for about a year and I'm still very new to pattern drafting. I drafted a pattern  which on paper looked fine but as a began to make it up and fit the sleeves I struggled and decided to cut the bodice down.  When I got it all together I discovered the bodice was now too snug :(

In the spirit of waste not want not I decided to dispose of the bodice and use the bottom half of the dress as a skirt.  

The original dress used the hem of the shirt as its skirt hem - why make unnecessary work for yourself.

I had already narrowed the shirt and sewn up the side seams to make the dress. All I now needed to do was chop of the bodice leaving the desired skirt lenght.  Measure my daughters waist and cut the same amount (plus 1.5cm for joining) of wide elastic.

I gathered the skirt to the same lenght as my daughters waist measurement. Overlapped the elastic by 1.5cm and stitched it together using a zigzag stitch and then attached the waist band.    Et Viola!

 

I admit its a little madcap and perhaps not Sunday best but there are some things I like about this skirt. 

 In keeping the lenght longer and the top quite close fitting I haven't needed to sew up the shirt openings.  My daughter can romp about in this skirt quite freely because of the opening in the shirts bottom however this longer lenght keeps her perfectly decent.  Also I imagine in the warmer summer months (Which I can only dream of at present) this feature will also keep her lovely and cool.

So a play skirt for a Daddy's girl cost - mere pence!