#capsulewardrobe #sewing #fabricscraps #upcycling
I love upcycling fabric scraps into making my own textiles, so I used a bunch of knit fabric scraps to make a fun dress-tunic-shirt-thing for my sewing a capsule wardrobe series.
I used the clone your clothes method to draft a pattern for this dress using a simple stretch knit LBD from my closet that works as the perfect base layer for my capsule. Cloning my black dress gave me two pattern pieces to work with, one for the front, and one for the back. The front pattern piece is drafted with a foldline down the center. The back pattern piece is drafted with a seam down the center back and cut with symmetrical right and left pieces.
I made the lining out of a green stretch knit fabric that isn't thick enough for one layer, so I created a shell with my own textile. I sewed fabric scraps together to make my own textile. I used fabric scraps from the green lining, purple scraps leftover after making my dress form cover, purple and black striped fabric scraps from a different dress I sewed for my capsule, and fresh yardage of black floral lace to make my own textile. All of my fabric scraps were knit fabrics, but different weights and thickness. I used my serger to sew all the strips of fabric scraps together to create my textile.
I sewed the shell to the lining by hand using a hand sewn blanket stitch (also known as a quilting or applique stitch). I also hand basted part of the shell to the lining along the armscye so I could sew it on with my serger later. I created armbands and a neckband from the leftover scraps after making my textile to finish the edges.
Since I used various fabric scraps for my shell textile, I didn't want to sew a normal folded hem using my sewing machine and risk all the fabrics warping under one tension. So I ended up serging the raw edge of my hem with a lettuce hem. I stretched just the edge of my hem under my serger with the differential feed set to .7 and the stitch width set finely. The lettuce hem on my lining turned out better than the lettuce hem on my shell because I stretched closer to the edge of my fabric.
I also made a mini upcycling project by using leftover fabric scraps to make a belt. I took 3 extra long fabric scraps, tied a knot in one end, and braided them down the full length. This cute little belt I made will look great with the rest of the clothes I made for my capsule wardrobe.
I absolutely love the way this dress came out! It is super comfortable and I love a flowy dress. I really like having a statement piece for my capsule wardrobe, but I know it will still fit with the rest of my capsule due to the dark purple, green, and black color palette.
But now I need to actually make some shirts for my capsule wardrobe, not just dresses.