Heather Hamblin

Upcycling a men’s dress shirt, it’s been done before & lots of cute dresses have come of it but I decided to challenge my use of a dress shirt, trying to eliminate the word dress from the equation, & started outlining a jacket. I utilized as many of the tailored shirt’s features as I could to finish the look. From putting the pocket on the inside, to keeping the buttons for closure. I reworked the collar & stripe fabric to make a cute jacket I envisioned my daughter wearing with a flowy top & jeans. THEN my daughter tried it on & said she wanted a dress with it. Leave it to the dress loving toddler to bring the “dress” back into the project. So my mind tried to think of a cute dress that would stand alone but also complement the jacket & I found myself completely drafting something with all kinds of scraps around my sewing room. Grabbing the little bits left from my dress skirt, I added button accents & made some bias trim. I love the final result. Then that same toddler decided she loved it but would not model for pictures.  Oh the joys of mama made. Here is my upcycled, recycled labor of love for my daughter. Now she can wear her summer dress into the cool fall weather with her jacket. I want to thank the dowel rod that agreed to stand in for pictures.

SaveSave