Wonder what happened to the bottom part of this dress that I cut off in the Summer Dress refashion? Baby Girl #2 is now wearing it.

Another super easy refashion that would work using any full skirt with a ruffle at the bottom. I took the ruffled, bottom edge of my dress and cut out the button placket and then cut it exactly in half so I had two lengths that were the same. Then I decided how much lower I wanted the bottom ruffle to hang below the top tier and added that much (plus a small seam allowance) of another strip of white fabric to the top of one of the layers.
Next, you will sew each layer together with itself at the open sides (not shown). To attach the two layers you need to put the shorter (top layer) tube facing right side up inside the longer tube/bottom layer, also facing right side up. The photo above is just an example to see the layers better, but your sides will actually already be sewn together. With the top layer inside the bottom layer, stitch them together across the top as show by the orange line above.

Then, flip the shorter layer back over the top of the longer layer as shown above, and press. Make the casing for your elastic by stitching all the way around, very close to the top. Then stitch another line, far enough below the first to leave the right space for your elastic. I used 20" of 1" wide elastic to fit my daughters waist. Be sure to leave a gap (between orange dots) to insert the elastic. This will be stitched closed after the elastic is in place.

Done:
Now, bribe your daughter with candy to model it for you. That $2.50 is really getting stretched this time... and I still have some projects in mind for the remainder of the hand-me-down skirt I used in the Summer Dress refashion as well:

This detail from the yoke will probably become part of a sleeve, and the remaining lining below will be a lining/petticoat for a small girl's dress. Already hemmed. I like shortcuts!

Just in time for two swimming-themed birthday parties this weekend, Dana from MADE posted this cute idea for turning a beach towel into a swimsuit cover-up dress. Dana made it for herself, but it was easy to adapt it for my daughters.

I had these towels I'd purchased on clearance to make hooded towels for my girls, but I hadn't used them all yet. Can you go wrong with pink towels when you have three girls? Right. So I bought a bunch. They are kind of thin and measure 27" by 52" wide.

I cut about 14" off the 52" length and set it aside to be used for a hooded towel later.

Then I did the shirring as Dana describes. She said she used about 5 bobbins of the elastic thread for hers. I used about 2 1/2 for this size. Shirring is so satisfying! Craft therapy indeed. I love to watch the fabric pucker as I go.

Before sewing the sides together I attached this ribbon along the bottom edge.

I used the same ribbon for the straps. I measured the length of elastic I would need, then cut ribbon 1 1/2 times as long. Then I stretched the elastic to the length of the ribbon as I sewed to get a ruffled look, and to make sure it could stretch along with the elastic. You have to hold on tight on both ends as you sew so this step was a little bit tricky.

Attach the straps and ta-da! Baby girl loves it. I left the towel width at 27" which made this a maxi dress length on my daughter. I might have to shorten it a bit for daughter number two.
Here's to a sunny, swimmy weekend. Thanks Dana!

Just in case you didn't get enough of this cute little model from my last post, I decided to post one more photo and a tutorial on how to make this dress. This is a super easy thing to sew... basically a tube with straps. To get started, you'll need to have a few measurements of the baby for whom you are sewing: Chest circumference, just under arms, and the length from armpit to knee.

Materials:

3/4" elastic to equal chest circumference + one inch

1/4" elastic to equal chest circumference + 4 inches.

Fabric for straps: Two 4" x 22" strips

Fabric for body:
1.5 x (Chest circumference) = width
armpit to knee measurement + 4" = dress length.
My baby's chest measurement was 20 inches and the knee length was 15 inches, so I cut a rectangle 30 inches by 19 inches.
(With a 45" width fabric, you should be able to get the width with some to spare, so when buying your fabric, purchase by your length+4 measurement above.)

I took a lot of photos to go along with the instructions, so I'm going to try posting the tutorial on Flickr. Follow this link for step by step instructions with photos.
This link will take you the first step, then click on the next photo at the right to get through the rest of the tutorial. Please leave your comments and questions if there is anything you think could be made more clear. Thanks and enjoy!