Refashion: Fall dresses

Inspired by a request from someone, I spent my Friday evening making a fall knit toddler dress.  I love the way it turned out. 

It was very simple.  I used the methods from this dress, but instead of flowers, cut various fall leaf shapes out of miscellanious knit scraps.  I used cookie cutters and actual leaves as the inspiration for the leaf shapes, and just rounded them off a little to make it easier to cut.  So much fun!
I've listed the one I made on my etsy shop, if you want to see more photos.




So, while the spirit was moving me, I decided to make another dress, this time for Joy.

This one was inspired by this adorable owl hat that a friend had. 

(She actually gave me the hat, but I wanted to try making my own.)

 And here's my adorable little owlet!

 

How I did it:

(This was 10pm with no natural lighting, so sorry for the poor quality of the photos)

    I found a polo shirt the perfect color in the "refashion pile". (Steve gets a lot from vendors, but doesn't really wear them because of the logos.)

I used a 12m dress for a size model, and cut out the body of the dress, tapering a little from the top.  (I folded it in half first to be sure I cut both sides the same.)  Then I cut off the hem.

I cut the sleeves out of the polo sleeves, using the dress for my size model again.  I kept the cuff.

 

Now I wanted a little pleat or gather along the shoulder.  I made 4 little pleats in each sleeve.

Baste across the pleats. 

 Sew a line of hem tape or ribbon along the edge, to keep the shoulder from stretching too much.

 Create a casing along the top edges of the two dress body pieces.  Measure a piece of elastic (I used my 12m dress again), and cut another the same length.  Thread a piece through the casing of each body piece and secure it at both ends.

 Now, to put it all together!  I marked 3" up from the edges of my sleeves, and lined this marking up with the top of each body piece, right sides together, and sew at 5/8". 

 When you do that with both sleeves and body pieces, it should look like this:

 Now, turn the pleated edge of the sleeves under at 5/8", and topstitch all along the shoulder.

Then I folded the whole dress in half at the shoulders, pinned the sides together, including the arms, and sewed it up.

 Clip the corners under the arms.

Trim the seams.

 

Now for the hat:
    I cut two pieces from the remaining shirt scraps, using another hat to get the right size along the bottom.
I simply sewed these two piece together, trimmed the seams, and turned it right side out. 

I used various knit and felt scraps that I had to add the owl features, and glued them down.  I added a little rhinestone in the middle of the flower.

And that's all!