Wednesday 3 September 2014

Prints Of Denmark

IMG_2966A friend bought a dress from eBay – having been attracted to the lovely print. It was well made, and the label proclaimed it to be Danish. But it was advertised as ‘medium size’ which it clearly wasn’t. Unless Danish women are all much slimmer than Brits. Which I am sure they aren’t.

Sandi Toksvig isn’t particularly skinny, is she? The dress was too small for my medium sized friend – but she didn’t want to waste it.

IMG_2943

Could I do anything with it to make it wearable, asked my friend. The bust was way too small, but it did appear that there would be enough fabric to make the lower section into a skirt for her.

She had a few requests for me

IMG_2944

IMG_2951

  1. Could I somehow retain the pretty blue buttons?
  2. Could I keep the contrast belt?
  3. Could I fix the red hem?
  4. Could I re-use the lining in the skirt?

There wasn’t a lot of spare fabric – the bodice was full of darts and tucks – so no large pieces of fabric for a waistband. The red hem appeared to have been an amateur attempt at shortening the dress – it was just cut off all the way round, but quite uneven, with no attempt at hemming or finishing [quite unlike the rest of the construction]

I decided to make the skirt without a separate waistband – attaching the lining with a simple seam and topstitching all round to keep the top edge neat. Before sewing this seam, I put the four waist tabs in place to hold the sash. I turned the red edge to the inside and hand stitched a narrow hem. There was a fifth tab on the right shoulder strap – so I fastened the skirt at the side with an overlap and used that tab halfway down as a closure [and a hook and bar at the waist] Here is the finished skirt. It has a red tie belt, tabs with cute blue buttons, and retains the original little pocket. I hope she likes it!

IMG_2965

10 comments:

  1. Oh goodness me! You are clever! That's a cute dress...but I think you have made it much more versatile! Well done you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely print - I've never seen one like it. Great that it could still be used, and used so beautifully.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wanted and not wasted! Your friend will be very pleased with this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic - I wish you lived nearer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm sure she'll love it, what a lot of work & such a lovely skirt. You are very talented. Vee x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fantastic! You have to have the eye and the imagination to do stuff like this, and I am lacking in both! Well done - and I do hope your friend loves the skirt xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. You've done a great job - I like it more as a skirt!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm sure your friend will be very pleased. It certainly does look better as a skirt.
    xx

    ReplyDelete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!