The Marykate Sunset Dress

Recently my sister, Marykate, gave me a bag full of clothes she no longer wore knowing that I would use the fabric with some of my sewing.  When I pulled this shirt out I instantly thought "I must make this into a sundress for Muffin!!"

The beginning of the project!  I cut the shirt down the back.

I measured Muffin's chest and I marked with pins about were I was going to need to cut to make the front of the dress, allowing an extra inch for french seams.  (I don't own a serger, so this is my way to hide ugly seam edges).

This is the back of the shirt.  On the right, you can see that it had pockets and I knew I wasn't going to use these.  So on the left you can see how I chopped off the top, salvaging the factory seam and cut off the pocket just in front of the side seam.  I repeated this on the other side of course, this is just a way of showing the before and after.

I sewed the back halves together (left) and I rolled over and stitched the top seam to hide the factory stitching.  I then used the front of the dress as a template and cut the back of it to fit.  The front of the dress (right) is a little folded over on itself in this picture an makes the angle of what will be the side seam look a little off, but they are matching sides. 

This is the finished product!  I eyeballed the cut for the bottom and hemmed it.  And after a rough fitting on Muffin, I decided to fold over and sew a 1/4 inch on each side of the actual halter top.  (It had a very bulky look to it and the extra fabric on the sides was going under her arms, and I knew if it were on me it would drive me nuts!)  I kept it simple by leaving the ends of the halter longer so that it can be fastened with a loose double knot.

This is the a photo of the rough fitting and the best shot I could get with a very active toddler!  Hopefully I'll be able to get a better picture tomorrow and post it on here sometime.  When I look at this sundress with all of it's warm colors, it makes me think about our upcoming trip to the beach this summer and us taking a family stroll around sunset.  So I guess it's really a Sunset Dress.

Thanks Aunt Katie!!