EXAMPLE Clothing Challenge

Ok, here is my first attempt at my sewing challenge.  This is just an example.  I'm not great with tutorials so I'm not even gonna try to do a step by step thing.

Here is a before:

The dress is WAY to short (maybe 6 inches at least), it has no sleeves, and the V-neck in the back is too low.  This is a dress I had in High School (that I wore with a shirt under & a sweater over top).  I really like it and every time I go out to my parents house I look at it and think what I can do with it.  Well, here goes.

I had this black T-shirt I remember getting with my Mom in South Bend for my 13th birthday (yeah, I know).  It still fits but ONLY as an undershirt.  It's a little tight and short so I thought it would be perfect.  First I cut the dress leaving the "skirt" about 21 inches.  Then I sewed the skirt to the bottom of the shirt.  Now I didn't take an after-after picture...I can't leave well enough alone and as you'll see in the after picture I'm going to post, the "skirt" part sits a little low and I raised it up about an inch.

Here is a picture of my WONDERFUL helper for the day.  He came with me to the fabric store and was a GREAT help there.  I had to pick up fabric for some other projects & all Jerimiah asked for was some horse fabric so I can make him some PJs (those pictures will come when I get to that project).  He let me sew most of the day.  My sewing machine is in my bedroom and he either watched me, played with some buttons I had out, or watched a movie while he rested behind me on my bed.  What a great little boy I have!

After I sewed the skirt on I hemmed up the bottom of the bodice I cut off the dress and tacked it to the top of the shirt.

Here is the final project:

As you can tell, the "skirt" did need to be raised up some but I am quite proud of how it turned out.

But because I have a hard time leaving well enough alone sometimes...I ALMOST completely ruined the dress!  I SO wanted to basically sew in a slip so I don't have to wear a separate one...problem was the fabric I used.  I almost had to cut myself out of the dress...luckily I just had to cut myself out of the slip portion.  I don't know what I was thinking but the fabric I used for the "slip" had ZERO stretch to it...the whole dress is stretchy so basically it failed horribly!  Anyway, I took out the slip and I'll just have to wear a separate slip, which is fine.

So, what do you think?  Does this project encourage or discourage you from my project?  See my previous post for project details (click here).

P.S. The BEST part is this whole outfit didn't cost me ANYTHING (well, unless you count the wasted "slip" fabric which I did buy)!!!