Upcycle Madness

I have been a bit enamored of the upcycle dress trend of late, especially those from Lilblueboo.  When my hubby came back from New York City last week with I ♥ NY shirts for everyone, I knew what I wanted to do with them:  turn them into dresses!  Lilblueboo's creator, Ashley, has patterns one can purchase from her Etsy shop but, sadly, they only go up to size 6!  My oldest daughter is a size 9, so I set about making my own version of her dress, without a pattern.

Here was my inspiration:

This is a Lilblueboo dress I find cute.

And here is what I made:

And I am never going to sew something without a pattern ever again.  LOL!  This was hard.  I used a bit of an Ottobre pattern to fashion the sleeves but otherwise I built this dress on my 7 year old daughter's body and she was not happy with my pinning!  I also did not trust my serging abilities to make the tiers serged on the outside, as LLB does, so I serged them on the inside as well.   I used rib knit for the red and turquoise and I am happy with that choice as I like the weight of it and the feel of it.  My daughter says it is a very cute and comfy dress and that is all that matters.

Now back to sewing with Ottobre!   More later...........