a little repurposed dress

Recently I was given a huge bag of baby clothes. I kept aside quite a few items for the coming summer for Violet, but there was several things that just didn't fit due to an ample cloth nappied bottom. Most of these were in stretchy knit fabric in assorted florals and stripes. So with the purpose of repurposing I decided to cut them all up.

I cut them into squares and rectangular shapes, even managing to salvage a few pockets along the way.
At first I thought I would make a skirt, before realising that I had far too much fabric pieces and the skirt would be way too long. So I decided to make a skirt style dress with straps instead.

Once the pieces of fabric were sewn together, I then trimmed and joined these strips together. Stretch fabric can tend to look a little bulky when sewn together, so I ironed all the seams downwards and topstitched to hold in place.

Using a stretch needle on my machine, I hemmed the bottom of the dress.  I then turned down the top of the dress twice, pressing well with the iron. I sewed a seam to allow for the elastic, leaving about an inch gap. I top stitched the very top edge which I find helps hold the elastic in place better. I then threaded the elastic through and sewed the seam closed.

Taking two long rectangular pieces I sewed the straps by folding in half, sewing down the edge and turning inside out. Then these were attached to the inner seams.

And now we have a soft and roomy little summer dress. It was made at no cost (except a little time) and may be turned into a skirt as Violet grows.