Guest tutorial: Party dress refashion by Marisa Lynch from New Dress A Day

Yesterday I posted my review of New Dress A Day by Marisa Lynch.

Today, I’ve got a special treat for you…. Marisa herself showing how to turn a drab, boring dress into fabulous party attire.

Take it away, Marisa!

*****

I’m all about making my own versions of fab designer pieces using vintage dresses and notions you can snag at the craft store! I love getting complimented on these designer remakes and getting to say that I made them myself!

I fell in love with this ASOS dress when I first saw it featured in a Teen Vogue spread and knew I had to try it out on my own!

I was totally into the colors and I had the perfect dress to use for this DIY.

There were lots of discolorations on the dress, so trying to hide them with paint was going to be the best trick to make them disappear!

I really wanted to get the color distribution and texture of the ASOS dress on point, so I started off by rubber banding scattered sections of the piece, taking a handful of fabric and wrapping rubber bands around each section.

Once everything was banded, I grabbed a few cans of Simply Spray in colors that matched the ones found on the ASOS dress – pink, light blue, turquoise, spring green, and lilac – and started to spray!

I started with sprays of pink and then moved a few more colors before covering the dress.

After the spray dried, I went to tackle the length next because I wanted something just a bit shorter to hit me at the knee.

I used the area where the side slits ended, as a guide where to cut.

With my dress newly cut, I pinned the raw edges under, and began to sew a new shortened hem.

Post-sew, I was ready for the day! I wanted to retain a similar texture to the one seen on the ASOS dress, so I didn’t iron down the crinkled areas where the rubber bands were.

From spotted dress to party appropriate ensemble in just a few, easy steps!

Next Pattern:

I am just smitten with this felt gingerbread house bag. This would make such a sweet special Christmas accessory for a kid. It’s a free pattern at Benzie Design, designed by Gracie from Hello Gracie Makes. It’s packed with adorable gingerbread house details, like swirls and stripes and scallops adoring the doors and windows.

And while all those details might seem like this would be a complicated pattern, it’s actually not. The bag itself is made from felt, which makes finishes edges unnecessary. (All of those scalloped edges are just cut from felt, no edge finishing required.) The strap is super simple, made from rope with knotted ends. And all those details are made with some basic hand embroidery stitches. Sparkle felt makes it extra cute.

The striped scallop roof is actually the top flap of the bag. A magnetic snap makes it a secure closure. The rope straps are attached through felt loops at the side of the bag.

They rate this project as an intermediate level, and it should take about 6 hours to make start to finish. That’s doable for a Saturday project or a couple of evenings. Full color photos step you through the entire process.

The project includes a shopping list for all of your supplies. They’ve got a shop so you can order all of them from Benzie if you like and get exactly the supplies used in the project. I noticed it includes a pair of scallop shears, which makes cutting all the scalloped edges for the roof and around the door a breeze.

Finished dimensions of the little felt gingerbread bag are approximately 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall. That’s the perfect size to hold a small book, a small toy, or a notepad and some cute pens.

Go to Benzie Design to get the tutorial and free pattern for the felt gingerbread house bag.

Next Pattern:

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