Hiya folks! I am so excited to be participating in the SisBoom Pattern Co Upcycle Tour today! The challenge was to use only repurposed or up cycled fabric to create any SisBoom Pattern Co garment. I have been repurposing fabric since I first started to sew or rather practiced sewing by cutting into my husband’s shirts since I learnt to sew from following blogs like Dana’s Made Everyday and Megan Nielson’s  maternity top DIY tutorials. Here are some hideous pictures of me (no thanks to pregnancy hormones) so you can see that I am not just making stuff up 😉

While my regular fabric stash is nothing to boast of, my collection of to-be-upcycled shirts is pretty huge!! #hoardersanonymous? 😀

So anyway, I jumped in as soon as the tour theme was announced and shortlisted about 3 shirts out of which i picked this blue chambray meaning to embellish it with some white hand embroidery.

Lol this picture just cracks me up!

My daughter needs some light and breezy dresses for this hot weather we’ve been having so the Maddie Top/Dress Pattern was just perfect.

I used the back of the shirt for the front and the front with the button placket for the back of the dress.

This pattern is so simple and adorable! Despite the simplicity of the pattern, the instructions are detailed and very well explained. I like how the steps are not rushed through, and really appreciate all the tips such as being careful when pressing the seams on the interfaced side so as not to burn the interfacing (My iron’s battle scars are proof of the number of times I have made this mistake).

I always say this but I really wish I’d bothered to take a picture of the inside because I love how neat it looks. The attachment of the ruffle is a bit different than what I am used to but i love how clean it looks. The sleeves are fully lined and clean finished too, though there’s a quick option to finish them by bias binding.

My original plan was to hand embroider big white flowers along the hem but when you’re trying to finish a project one day before your post is due while hosting the one thousand relatives you have at home, you have to settle for something simpler. So instead, I cut around the flowers from a crochet lace and hand sewed them to the front of the dress.

I left the back of the dress plain but changed out the buttons from the boring ones to these pearly ones 🙂 Don’t they look cute?

Sewing the Maddie Dress and adding all the little details to it has been the perfect excuse to get out of my sewing rut. So satisfying to transform that boring unused shirt to a darling summer dress for my little!

How is your summer sewing coming along?