DIY Maternity Dress Alterartion

During an earlier visit to Goodwill, I thrifted a Motherhood dress, psyched to find proper maternity wear- the fit was ok except that the neckline was really wide and bugged me, requiring additional undergarments which still didn't work well:/

Sorry for the lack of a full length photo- couldn't manage it on my own:/

And then I came across an old black tank top with lace trim that I wore occasionally in college...a very long time ago.

Just imagine the neckline without the lace:/

I simply cut around the neckline of the tank, pinned to the dress and sewed on with my handy dandy stretch needle along the existing hem- I didn't know if this would work, hence the lack of pictures:/

The lace looks like it's always been part of the dress and now makes the neckline modest without needing additional garments...just a chunky necklace!

Cost:

Thrifted Maternity dress: $5.99

Lace Tank top: free

TOTAL: <$6

Thanks for stopping by,

Tiffany

DIY Dress Alteration

I've been getting fall & winter clothes ready for my little Ms, in hopes that cooler temps will be arriving all the sooner:)  Both kids are growing like weeds but Livy just transitioned to the next size...which is great, except that long sleeve shirts and trousers are now drooping on her a bit:/

Enter DIY alterations!

On a long sleeved knit dress, I simply rolled the cuff inside the sleeve to the appropriate place... 

...stitched around, leaving a gap to add some 1/4 inch elastic and sealed everything up!

***Don't forget to use your stretch needle for knits!!!

As you can see, someone wasn't cooperating while trying to take pictures...

...and got a major case of the sillies...

...but hopefully you can see that her sleeves are no longer hanging past her little hands!

This dress is still a smidgeon big so I left a bit of room in the sleeves and made my alterations 'temporary' and easy to undo for when Pnut grows more:)

We were both pretty chuffed and now I just have about another 8 tops to go...and then leggings!

Yeah for free:)

Thanks for stopping by,

Tiffany

DIY Bike Shorts

This summer, I purposed to have Livy wear more dresses, thus modesty/bike shorts were needed...

 I had trouble finding any at the "right" price but did find some leggings on clearance...so I hatched a plan to make them into shorts.  

After trying the leggings on Livy (sorry no pic but they're leggings so you can use your imagination, right?!), I simply pinched the fabric where I intended to cut, kept my fingers in place while they were removed from those cute legs and lobbed off the bottoms with my handy dandy rotary cutter!

Technically they could have been left un-hemmed since knit doesn't ravel but I wanted a finished hem, so the ends were tucked under and secured with 2 rows of zigzag stitches- the zigzag allows the seam to stretch a bit with the knit vs a tight straight stitch.

TIP: Don't forget to use your stretch needle!

And 10 minutes later, Livy had some new "shorts"!  I've now done this with 3 pairs of knit leggings and am thrilled with the easy, frugal results:)

Have fun altering,

Tiffany

DIY Maternity/Nursing Dress

When I was "infanticipating" with my little Ms, I knew nothing of sewing, thus bought maternity clothes, albeit on clearance!  

This time around, I'm trying my hand at some alterations & DIY creations:)  

I bought a knit maxi dress (non maternity clearance at Ross) with plenty of stretch & the desired V neck for future nursing capacity...

...however, the neckline was way too low for me...

 ...so instead of having to wear a full length tank underneath (difficult for future nursing), I chopped a square of white knit to make a nursing/modesty panel...

...and it works like a charm!  

I zigzag stitched at the top 2 corners to keep the panel in place, allowing the bottom to hang free & be maneuvered easily:)

TIP: Be sure to use a stretch needle when sewing with knits!

With the summer Texas heat beating down, I was looking for the least amount of layers needed for this combo & am thrilled with this DIY experiment!

On to the next!

Tiffany