Pimp My Wardrobe Item #3

The everyday gray dress! 

Hey everyone! February is flying by faster than January! Ah! I've been on a blog hiatus due to a frustrating online purchase (more on that coming soon), and all my energy is going into finding ways to refashion and alter the pieces I bought. Trying to make a positive out of a negative never killed anyone, right? Today I have an awesome little everyday dress for you. It's not really a tutorial, mainly because I winged the whole thing, but I do have step-by-step photos of how I reached the end result. If it inspires you to create your own, awesome! 

I bought two yards of this gray knit material, and I only ended up using 3/4 of it. If I had wanted a maxi dress, or a mini dress, I would have made the adjustments for the length. For this particular dress, though, we are going for fun and basic. This piece really needed to be simple, but fun; something to wear on a daily occurrence. 

To make the pattern for my dress, I am using one of my favorite t-shirts. 

To cut out my pieces, I laid my fabric out and folded the two edges over into the middle (as shown below). 

I've folded my shirt in half and matched up my two folded edges. I also pinned it in place so it wouldn't shift around while I cut out my dress. Repeat this on the other side of the gray fabric so you have two identical pieces. 

Once you've cut your pieces out, adjust your neckline to the length you desire.

Following that, I pinned my shoulders and sewed them together, first using a straight stitch and then going over the raw edge with a zig-zag stitch. I also rolled the neckline over twice, pinned it in place, and sewed that down as well. 

After the completion of the above steps, I sewed the sides together. Then I chopped off an extra 4 inches from the bottom of my dress. Mid-calf isn't a good look on me. 

I found this scrap of fabric in my stash, and I knew when I saw it that this would really add that fun pop I needed to complete the dress. However, I stumbled upon a dilemma because I had already sewn the shoulders together. No matter. I unpicked the shoulder seam and went about adding the strips. Not only did this give fun detail, it also brought a little more room to the sleeves. 

Even though I originally cut two strips, I ended up only using one for both sleeves. 

Now for the sleeve hem I used that leftover strip of fabric. I cut it in half horizontally, and then pressed it in half like a hot dog (back to elementary education we go!). 

That's all she wrote! 

If you'd like to see what other wardrobe garments I've made, you can see them here, and here. 

Today I am grateful for quality time with my brother.