A maternity upcycle

My trusty old maternity dress, sitting in a plastic bag in the front hall, waiting patiently for me to remember to drop it off at the local Goodwill, was the inspiration that caught my eye while contemplating making a new dress for Stella to be worn in our family photos.

 

 

As usual, I had an idea in my head how I wanted her dress to look.

It had to coordinate with the other girls, but yet be different.

 I knew I wanted lots of ruffles { because I heart them}, but didn't want the dress to be all that super fancy.

And the gray knit was just what I was looking for, to downplay the fancy.

 

After cutting off the bottom hem, ruffling it and reusing it for the bottom hem of the new dress, I cut a few more strips for ruffles. 

I took one of Stella's current dresses to get an idea of size {I know, real scientific} and cut the "lining" of the dress out of the maternity special.

I was pretty proud of myself for not wasting much fabric {used everything but the sleeves!}

After a lot of cutting and pinning and sewing and measuring, I attached the "skirt" to one of Stella's  gray shirts.

 

 

And I am very pleased with the way it turned out!

 

Happy Thursday all~