Dress Upcycle Tutorial

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These were two simple knit dresses that I bought on holiday in Bali a couple of years ago. Unfortunately they shrunk in the wash and were rather too short to wear!

So I cut the bottom off one dress - it had a few holes in the fabric, so I just took off those really.

I then cut the top part off the other dress.

Then all I did was simply stitch the two dress parts together to make one longer two-tone dress.  

I tried the dress on at this stage, but found it a bit shapeless:

So with the remaining fabric, I cut strips, opening up one of the side seams to make 3 long strips of fabric, which I then knotted together and plaited (braided) to form a kind of belt.

I then wrapped it around my waist firmly for size, then cut and stitched the ends together covering them with another scrap of the fabric to hide the raw edges.

Finally, I hand- stitched this belt to the join in the two fabrics on the dress - at just four points.

This helped to hold the belt in place, and add a little more shape to the dress, which I'm now quite happy with!

For more ideas about upcycling old dresses - 

go here 

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