Candy Striper


Since I’ve started sewing, people randomly give me gifts of fabric and clothes. Now that I work in the back of a fabric store, I get MORE fabric and clothes. I have refrained from taking them all, but every now and then something with promise catches my eye.

Exhibit A: Frumpster shirt dress.

I know that you are thinking that this dress is a lost cause, but I had hope that this would be a cute candy striper dress for my Grand Opening Party.

Here’s how the creative process went.

  1. amputate sleeves
  2. carefully cut off collar
  3. remove about a foot of fabric from the skirt.
  4. add extra buttonholes“  to the top of the dress and use the buttons from the bottom and sleeves
  5. make bias binding from the fabric that was cut off the skirt
  6. bind the neck and armholes
  7. hem skirt

In the meantime, a box of elastic belts appeared in the store. I found a pink one that matched, and used excess sleeve fabric to cover one of the buckles.

Here’s the finished dress.

I plan on going over some of the techniques used to make this dress in“  my Creative Hacks class next weekend.

There are two ways to register for class. 1) head over to Brown Paper Tickets and register online.  2) stop by Fabricker and the lovely April can sign you up.