A Colorful Bohemian Retro Refashion!

Today was a gloomy day outside. After having experienced some gorgeous springy weather the last week, this week's cold and clouds has been kind of disappointing. But it also forced me to stay inside and do some reorganizing and planning for future sewing projects. A refashion was on my list- especially since I have bags and bags of old clothes sitting under my craft table just waiting to be turned into something useful and adorable. Luckily, inspiration struck when I saw these two fabrics stacked together: 

A long bohemian skirt and a '70s muu muu dress.

It's like they were meant to be together, right? I definitely thought so!

And this is what I made with those pieces. A Bohemian Retro refashion/upcycle that my daughter actually likes! I love peasant tops for summer and of course, skirts and dresses are essential summer pieces so I married the two and came up with this fun look.

I even created some rosettes: one for the neckline and three more for the apron.

So here's how quickly it came together: 

1. Cut out the four pieces for the peasant top. Two for the bodice and two for the sleeves. You can find free peasant top patterns online with the help of sites like www.craftsy.com or a new pattern place I love spending hours on is www.sewset.com. I've found several patterns on both sites that I'm going to eventually try out- they're both endless sources of inspiration, in addition to Pinterest, of course!

2. Line up the curves of the sleeves with the curves on the bodice and sew together, making sure the right sides are facing each other. This fabric was a sheer woven cotton so I kept having to double check that I was sewing it correctly.

3. Next, fold down the neckline twice to create a casing for the 1/4" elastic. Sew it down leaving a two inch opening to insert the elastic, run it through and sew it together. Stitch close the casing and then finish your sleeves the same way with elastic. In my case, I merely hemmed the sleeves because my daughter hates sleeves that squeeze in on her arms. Now the bodice is complete so on to the skirt.

4. After measuring how much I needed for the skirt, I snipped down the length of it from the elastic waistband at the top, making sure to hold on to the elastic so that I didn't lose them. I pinned the new seams together and sewed up, creating a much smaller skirt from the large one.  

5. I gathered the bottom of the bodice to make it the same size as the skirt. With the skirt right side out and the top inside out, I inserted the skirt up through the neckline and lined up the edges. Sew together and finish all the seams as needed.

6. Yay! Just made a dress! But it needs something more...right?

7. So I added a pink apron with an overlay made from the bottom of the large Bohemian skirt. I created more matching rosettes and hand sewed those in a cluster at the top corner of the apron and sewed another one in at the neckline.

And here she is modeling her fun new look for us! Sorry about the messy hair- this was right before her bath so we weren't about to doll her up just to undo all the work right after our photo shoot.

Seriously- what's more fun & easy to wear in the summer than an easy pull on peasant dress? It's also colorful (obviously) and Bohemian cool- just full of personality, isn't it?

 I love the fabric rosettes. I'm going to be making more and turning them into a fun ribbon necklace that can also be worn in her hair.

Isn't it cute? My favorite refashion ever! I'm now more inspired than ever to go through those bags and bags of clothes and making some unusual pairings with the fabrics! This one was so fun and fast, I could make one for each of the girls in my family in just a week! Imagine how colorful that family picture would be, huh? =) Looking forward to it! Happy sewing all!

Linked to Sew Much Ado's We Did It Wednesday Party!

I'm featured at Sumo's Sweet Stuff's Market Yourself Monday!
Linking up to Craft-O-Maniac's Monday Link Party.

Linked to jembellish.blogspot's upcycled clothing page.