Alright, so you all probably know about the Dharma Trading Design Challenge that Ashley over at Lil Blue Boo is doing right now, right!?! If not, it is a design challenge wear you create a unique outfit for a boy or a girl using a Lil Blue Boo pattern, the challenge ends on Feb. 15. The neat thing is that Ashley is donating one of her Lil Blue Boo dresses to a child in need for every 10 entries she receives, Wowza, cool right!!! Isn’t that motivation enough to get at least one done?
Well, I finished my challenge entry this weekend, yippee, it was floating in my head for a couple weeks now and it feels so good to have it made! It’s what I call a ‘girlified punk’ dress. I found my inspiration in a KISS band t-shirt that I magically happened on in the little boys’ section of Target, and for only $1.98 on clearance!! I thought the KISS aspect of it might make a cute Valentine’s Dress but with a punk/edge-y twist. I decided to add some red with a generic red Hanes t-shirt and then the stripes are from an Old Navy knit yoga top I bought for myself last fall for .97 cents when they had their additional 50% off on all clearance sale but I never thought fit me quite right. So this little dress is really quite the bargain! I embellished the dress with hearts on the body and sleeves to give it that girly look but placed them on with reverse applique because I thought that gave it a more punk-y look in my eyes 🙂 I also made Penny some matching legwarmers cause I thought those just made the dress even punk-ier!
It was my first time ever doing the Sienna pattern and you all know how I am not much of a pattern girl, right? But, really this pattern is SO easy, it seriously only takes an hour (or two if you are a slow pattern cutter-outer like me) to finish! The Sienna pattern starts at 6-12 months and goes all the way up to 6T so it fits a wide range of ages but I noticed size 12-18 months was not on the pattern!! If you have a little one between 12 months and 2 years of age you can just average between the two patterns and cut that out, that’s what I did and it fit Penelope great!!
Ok, so want to see my entry?
Here goes nothing:
Front view of my version of the Sienna Dress for the Dharma Trading Design Challenge
Backside view with a cute little heart reverse applique over the left-side of her bum!
Close-up of some heart reverse applique on the front.
Sweet girl and punk rocker all in one!
Ok, so let me show you how I designed this cutie little dress:
To make hearts that weren’t lop-sided, I just folded a piece of scrap paper in half and cut a half a heart! See, nice and symmetrical hearts, oh so lovely!!
Then, I just placed the half-hearts along the seam of the sleeves and cut them out, like so. I also opened the hearts and cut around them on the front and back of the dress body too.
To reverse applique, I placed a piece of the red t-shirt knit on the wrong-side (or underneath) of the sleeve cut-outs and pinned in place. Then, I just straight stitched around the hearts. Mine definitely aren’t perfect appliques but I was going for a girly-punk look so it worked for this dress!That’s basically the dress in a nutshell, what do you think!?!
For the legwarmers, I just used the sleeves from my long-sleeved yoga top. They were a little big, width-wise, since it is a ladies top so I just cut off some of the width.
Then, sew a new seam (using a straight stitch) with the legwarmers inside out. Then, I just added elastic to the top like I showed you here with these legwarmers. Easy peasy matching dress fun!
My punk rock little girly!
Front view
Side view
Backside view
Lovin’ her new dress!
And of course, a box of conversation hearts is how we get most pictures done these days!
So sweet!
Love it!
SO cute Maggie! The “Kiss” shirt is great for V-Day – would never have thought of that one! Love Miss P’s hair in the pigtails too. I think I will probably post my entries on Thurs. or Friday – be on the lookout!
Linds
That is much too adorable! You will be a definite contender!!! Love it (especially with those leg warmers.)
How wonderful. And reverse applique on stretch knits? You are brave. Love the refashioning!
this is awesome!! you did a great job
Love the reverse applique! Super cute!
OK, had to call the husband from the other room to view this one with me!! So awesome!! Penny totally looks like an amazing little 80s rocker chick! Great job!
So so cute! Your little girl looks just darling in that outfit! Good luck in the challenge! 🙂
I love it! And of course, the leg warmers make it even better. As a gal whose brother has a tape of her singing some Kiss at the tender age of 3, I appreciate the tee.
So cute! I’m loving the reverse app hearts on the sleeve.
I’m totally nervous about sewing with knit – but I am getting more and more convinced I should just go for it!
That is fantastic! I LOVE it! The kiss t-shirt is too fun, and my fave are the leg warmers! Thanks for sharing!
-Tiff
Ohhhhhhhhh, so adorable! I love it! Your daughter looks priceless in these pics! Great job!!!!
Thanks everyone! I just HEART all your comments, you guys make me feel so happy!
-Mags
Your blog is seriously going to make me explode, don’t you know that? I am loving this! I can barely hold a needle w/o sending myself to the ER but WOW! I can’t wait to tell all my sew-savvy friends about this!! And her little leg warmers? ACK! HOW PRESH!!!