Chelise Patterson

Hi there! My name is Chelise Patterson and I am the owner of Thread Sewing School where I get to share my love of sewing with lots of kids (and adults too). I am glad to have had this challenge to upcycle, since I definitely don’t do it often enough. I do have an upcycle pile though full of things I want to make into something else and this particular polka dot maternity dress from ASOS has been sitting in that pile for a long time. It is the perfect garment to upcycle because the knit is really nice quality with a nice weight, there is a lot of fabric in the dress, and there are few seams to work around. I had plenty of fabric to work with to remake it into a happy little summer dress for my four year old. I used the Soleil Dress pattern by Baste and Gather. The new fabric I incorporated into the old fabric is the bright yellow knit I used as ribbing. It was a tough decision to not use pink, which tends to be my go-to for the four year old. But the bright yellow and the polka dots make this probably the happiest dress on earth!