Upcycling: Jumper to Little Girls Winter Dress
Winter dresses have been impossible to find for my little one. As Bella is only in size 1, I wasn’t expecting any trouble in finding winter dresses, but alas I have.
Searching online for inspiration I discovered the idea of upcylcing a jumper into a little girl’s dress. Â Between both tutorials I was confident to ‘give it a go’. Result was two lovely girl’s winter dresses.
Off to the op-shop Saturday morning. By Saturday evening I’d whipped up a couple of dresses for Bella to wear to Mass Sunday morning. The cream dress is needing further embellishments. But for now, with a bright sash of pink around her waist, tights and boots (not the ones above, they’re big brother’s) Bella looked rather cute on Sunday morning.
Jumper 1 was an adult’s, jumper 2 was an older child’s. A slight bit of different thinking and extra cutting was involved from one to the other.
Just How
I’ll leave it to Make it Love it and Everyday Art to take you through step by step. Essentially though, I used another dress as a template for size. Took a deep breath and cut. The result as you can see is a ‘dodgy’ armhole on one side, fortunately the material was forgiving.
With the cream jumper I cut a little off at the shoulder seams to make the neck opening tighter. As the pink/grey jumper had a different neckline a few extra stitches was required to close the opening further.  To shorten the arms I cut at the top and to reduce the bulk of the pink/grey sleeves I ran the scissors down the seam side and cut off a generous amount. Both steps involved taking a deep breath and a reminder that I only paid $2, so if I ‘hacked it’ completely the world will keep spinning;)
The most reassuring moment was on Sunday morning when I noticed a young girl in the pew in front of us, she was wearing a woolen jumper (with decorative buttons) exactly the same style as Bella’s just a different colour!! I admit to being distracted, I kept wondering was it purchased (likely) or had it too been upcylced from a woolen jumper?
8 Comments
Laura Pearl
This is pure genius! And what a cutie pie!
Erin
Laura,
Was going to send the link to you, thought you'd appreciate it:)
Marijke
Well done Erin! You could also leave the sleeves off and wear it with a long sleeve shirt underneath.
I had a couple like those for Sophie, very cute with boots and warm. Sleeves get dirty quickest here, saves hand washing the woollen dresses too often… 😉
Erin
Marijke
Brilliant idea! Wouldn't have occurred to me
MB
Oh she is a little darling xx
Erin
Thanks MB, I can only agree:)
Bron Maxabella
Cute idea, Erin. Bella looks adorable. x
Erin
Bron
I'm afraid pinterest takes the credit. I must conceded she is adorable:)