The Flora Dress Tutorial
Flora Dress Before Hemming by Kathryn Sturges
You know when you order a dress online, but when it gets to you it is just a flat out NO? This dress was like that. I actually paid $40 plus dollars for it from Old Navy, thinking it would look cute with cardigans and leggings. But the fit was all wrong, and it just seemed so matronly to me because of the traditional cut of the skirt. It was not very comfortable to wear. I typically love a dress with some flow and movement to the skirting, and this dress just plain fell short! I didn’t wear this dress one time, it immediately got gently placed into my Donate bag.
Now that I’m upcycling clothing, I thought I would experiment with the dress…and I’m so glad I did! This upcycle is so easy, even a total beginner could do it! It only has a few steps and voila! A beautifully transformed dress!
I used a home decor fabric for the side panels. The only reason I used it was because I already had some in my fabric bin. I am of the mind to use what I already have instead of constantly buying new before each project, so I went through my fabrics and this ivory fabric was just perfect! It has texture to it, and because the weight of the dress fabric is heavier I thought the home decor fabric would suit it perfectly.
Materials:
a dowdy dress that needs a bit of love
about a yard of fabric that is a similar weight to the dress
(If the dress is stretchy, use a stretchy fabric…if it isn’t then use a woven fabric)
Basic sewing kit
Sewing Machine
Rotary cutter, mat and ruler
Try on the dress and figure out how short you want it to be when finished. Initially this dress hit below the knee so I cut off the bottom portion just above knee length.
Next, lay out the dress so one side seam is on top, and slip the rotary mat into the skirt. Be sure the rest of the fabric is out of the way so that you don’t mistakenly cut the wrong fabric. (This has happened to me before!)
You will be cutting out a triangle from the seam. If you want it to be exact, measure out from the seam at the bottom to about five inches and place a pin, then do the same on the other side of the bottom edge. So you will have two pins that are equally spaced from the side seam. .
Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut a straight line starting at the waistline and ending right beside one of the pins. Then do the same thing on the other side. This will create a large triangle. Save the triangle to use as a template.
Do the same thing on the other side of the dress. Then set aside the dress. (Another way you could go with this dress is to only add a triangle on one side, it just depends on the look you are going for. Or you could add the triangle down the middle of the front or back.)
Using the fabric template from the first triangle, cut out two triangles of the insert fabric. I simply placed the triangle template on the home decor fabric and traced around it with a purple sharpie. Cut out the two triangles and sew them into the sides of the dress. Flip the dress inside out, pin in the triangle with right sides together, and sew. Then sew the other side. Repeat for the opposite side of the dress.
Finally, hem the dress. I used a hemming ruler and iron and pressed the hem first, then folded it again as I sewed using a straight stitch. You could use a decorative stitch to add another element of style.
Adding triangle inserts to dresses is so much fun, and it can really liven up a boring dress. You can add them in to the front or back if a dress is too small, you can make them wider or smaller depending on the look you want. If you are trying to make a dress bigger that doesn’t fit, you can remove a smaller triangle portion from the dress in step three and then add a much bigger triangle insert to give more room.
This dress is up for grabs in the shop! Onto the next upcycle…
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