Cozy Playdress by Mandy of Sugar Bee Crafts

Mandy was one of the first bloggers to e-mail me back and say yes to this series, despite the fact that her blog is like 10 times the size of mine, so for that alone she’s super cool in my book. She’s also an amazing crafter, a fellow competitor on Project Run and Play, and I love her smile and sense of humor, which you can see especially on her WIWW posts. 

I have 4 kiddos and love to craft and blog (obviously!) – – I feel like if I can do something, then you can too!!

Today I am going to show off my version of a sundress for my daughter.  She LOVES to play outside, hence in the sun, so I wanted to make her a Cozy Playdress.  I whipped this up for her in less than 30 minutes, the night before her big debut at Summer Kindergarten Roundup – she LOVED wearing a new dress to that big event.  All the pictures are from the morning right before heading out to meet her teacher and take a practice bus ride – I love how the pictures show her excitement and nervousness all at once.

So easy… I just dug through my “to repurose” stash and found a couple of shirts – one striped coralish pink one from my mom’s discarded pile – it was perfect in color and I loved the side vents – I thought they’d make a great dress bottom.  Then a light teal little girls shirt – it was way too small because it was too short, but it could still fit around.

And then I got to work – it went together so quickly that I forgot to take how-to pictures!!  But I’m going to walk you through it!

• Find 2 knit (tshirt fabric type) shirts, one that will fit the child (even if it’s too short)
• Cut the adult shirt straight across under the arms.  The bottom part you cut off will be the skirt part of the dress.
• Sew a gather stitch (a long stitch that you pull) along that top edge that you just cut.  Pull it to gather it.  Gather it enough to match the width of the little girl’s shirt.
• Sew the skirt part to the bottom of the shirt with right sides together.
• Turn right-side out and you’re done!!
• See, easy peasy!  YOU CAN DO THIS!  if you’ve never worked with knit, this is a great project to give it a try.

I also whipped up a twisted turban headband using the top fabric of the adult shirt.  I will be posting a tutorial for that type of headband on my blog later this week.  It was so cute!

Thanks so much for having me!!  Hope to see you over at Sugar Bee Crafts!!

Thanks Mandy! While you’re looking around her blog, check out some of my favorite Sugar Bee Craft projects, like this awesome chevron skirt