DIY Altered Sundress, Red White Blue

It’s that time of year – sundresses all around! I’m super excited to be part of the Sundress Series again this year – this time with a refashion! I found this dress at a thrift store and originally bought it to use the fabric. But then I realized it would be super cute as-is, with a few alterations. I love how it came out!

I was able to take a discarded women’s dress (that would have been too short for me) and turn it into a super-cute dress of perfection for my 10 year old.

Let’s take a look at the Before and After – you can see that will a few very minimal and doable changes, it makes all the difference:

So, as you can see, it’s just all around too big.  The major problem is where the waistline is hitting here – by not being at her natural waist, it makes the dress look super frumpy.  So the first thing I did was cut it apart at the waistline (being sure not to cut out the pleats – I didn’t want to have to redo that!) and take out about 3 inches off of the bottom of the bodice.

Then you turn the bodice inside-out, slide it over the skirt part to where the raw edges line up, and sew it back together.

After that I wanted to bring the sides of the bodice in a little,  I turned the whole dress inside out and took it in about an inch on each side (where that dashed line is marked).  I didn’t take the skirt in because I liked it a little fuller.  Luckily the neckline didn’t need altered – that’s the trickest part if you need to do that.  But it’s doable!

Well worth the $1 I spent on it!! With just those few altered seams, it fits so much better!

And then of course there’s the fun of adding accessories 😉

If you love DIY sundresses, you’ll also love:

Patriotic Sundress | Dolman Dress| Playdate Dress