Upcycled Sweater Dress

I've been meaning to make this dress for ages!  I bought the sweater months ago from Goodwill, knowing it would make a darling dress for Little Sister.  I finally got motivated to put it together when the holidays were rolling around and I knew it would be good to have an outfit that was festive AND comfy and not too formal for the types of events we participate in.

For example, visiting Santa.

And I finally got motivated to get pictures taken and blog about this dress when I saw that one of this season's Project Run and Play themes was upcycling!  I actually planned on making this dress back when last season had a "personal style" theme since upcycling is so inherent to most of my sewing projects, but I just ran out of time.  Oh, and by the way--the outfit the boy is wearing in the Santa photo is coincidentally all upcycled too!  He happened to wear these pants and this sweater.  How nice of him!

I used a basic t-shirt bodice pattern I had drawn up based on one of Little Sister's tees, and cut it out to empire length at the top of the sweater, sewing new shoulder seams so I could make the opening smaller while still using the ribbed sweater neckline.

When I drew that pattern originally I made a few sleeve variations--this one uses the puffed sleeve no hem sleeve pattern (since I cut the sleeve from the bottom of the sweater sleeve and didn't need to sew a hem).

The accessorizing is all her--she chose flower hair clips, zig-zag shoes, and purple pin-dot leggings.

I thought it would be cute to dip the waistline down a bit in the back--I like the rounded effect with the fair isle stripes.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, as it turned out), I cut the neckline too small and it was kind of snug over Little Sister's head.  If an item is difficult to get on, she will NOT wear it, so I knew I had to remedy the situation if I wanted her to wear the dress.  So I cut a facing out of t-shirt fabric and made a little elastic loop button opening in the back.  Now it's easy to get on and off, even without undoing the button, and it's a cute little added detail.

As if we needed any extra cuteness.

So there you have it!  My upcycled sweater dress.  Quick, easy, comfy, super cute, and about $5 to make!

I'll update this link with the Project Run and Play sew-along  when it's ready (it's there now)--so fun to see what everyone has been making!