Sweetling Refashion Summer Outfit: The Beginning

I recently joined the Refashioning Co-op to help get and keep me inspired.  So far, so good.

As I go through my clothes and my children's clothes, I'm making a pile of items to make into other things.  Donating is great and all, but some of the items have small stains here and there (from the kids or from the previous owners) and most donation places would just toss them, so why not remake them into something else that we can use?  So I'm working on various ideas and how to impliment them... and figuring out what the chance is that I'd actually follow through on some of these ideas.

Right now, I'm working on a summer dress for my daughter.  I took a romper that was a hand-me-down from my oldest sister (who received it as a hand-me-down from her neighbor for her own daughters).  Honestly, I found it very... clownish.  My sister apparently did to, since she mentioned that she never had her daughters wear it either.  But I did see some potential in it.  (I apologize for the images in advance.  They are a little dark, but we can't find the cords for our good camera in order to download the images.  I may tinker with these images to get a better idea of the colors, but for now, it they will have to do.)



original Romper (front and back)

The main material is a bright white with block stamp style butterflies and tulips (and a few dirt marks that I will Oxyclean out later).  I figured it would make a cute Spring and Summer outfit.  The collar, cuffs, bum ruffle and bow are all a very cute pink with polka dot cloth.  I plan to make a white dress using those as detailing.  I am a sucker for polka dots.  Below are the pieces, including the elastics and some of the longer pieces of thread.

broken down to pieces
(pieces of similar shape, like the legs and torso back, are placed on top of each other)

I plan to make a light jacket, dress, perhaps a hat and diaper cover.  As a base for the dress and hat, I'm using Mccalls 4424 infant dress and hat.  I've loved this pattern since I first saw it (long before I really thought I'd have kids) and I figured this was a great opportunity to test it out.  The jacket will be from the romper's original torso design with a few modifications and the diaper cover will be figured out later (whether I choose to use this pattern, another, or just forgot it all together).

McCalls 4424

I don't have enough of the main fabric for the dress torso lining and the skirt, so I dug through my cloth stash and found some thin pink broadcloth and some bright yellow cotton.  I opted for the former, though I may have to bulk up the cloth a little to make it appear less thin (the romper cloth was a bit heavier a cotton).  I also have the original romper's buttons that I'm debating to use for the jacket and a huge pink flower I found that I will use as added detailing.  I chose to buy some transparent pink ribbon in two shade I may turn into ruffles for addition softness.

I'm not using the pattern for the skirt, instead just cutting rectangles (two in the printed romper fabric and one in the pink broadcloth) and will be adding a large ruffle in the pink broadcloth as well.  Sorry if all of this isn't exactly clear, but it will make more sense when the dress is done.

My goal with this outfit is to have the jacket and dress done by Easter regardless of whether we choose to have my daughter wear it for the Holiday or at some point that weekend.

There are a few concerns I have.  I worry that the dress won't fit right.  My daughter is 4 months old, but is the max for the pattern's size Medium, so I'm making it in a size Large (for 9-12 months olds!).  I also worry that it will end up looking less that what my standards dictate.  I have high expectations of myself.  And though I'm harder on my own creations than I am on other peoples, I feel a small sense of "what the heck" when I see people taking items and remaking them into subpar pieces, things I'm halfway sure they wouldn't wear or use, but rather threw together just to say, "Look what I made."  I'm not into that, and hope that my refashioned items don't turn out that way, because really that would make me feel like a huge hypocrite... and that would suck.  So, I guess we'll see how this goes.