Upcycle Goodness

Reese's collection of up-cycled dresses is started to get pretty big. I love them for a few different reasons...
1. It is a way for Reese to wear character outfits in a way I love (I am not a big fan of character clothes typically)
2. They are usually very inexpensive to make and a pretty quick sew.
3. They are comfortable(great for play but also cute enough for going out) and great for any weather due to the ease of layering over long sleeve shirts and leggings or ruffled pants.
4. Reese loves them!!!

Reese kept asking for princess dresses for Christmas. I threw around the idea of sewing a few cute dress-up dresses out of knit, but then she could only wear them at home (which I knew could possibly turn into a daily battle). I finally decided to find a few cute princess t-shirts and make them into up-cycled dresses. She was thrilled when she opened them on Christmas morning and insisted that one of them would be her Christmas day outfit. I, of course, protested and told her she had to wear the adorable knot top and ruffled pants outfit I made her. Then I realized that she was excited about her new dresses and that she should be able to choose her outfit for the day. At least she was still wearing something I made...hehe.

Here is what I came up with:



I bought the shirts NWT off of ebay, and they are originally from Gap (Junk Food t-shirts). I still wanted to give them a little of a "princess costume" feel, so I decided to add the pointed skirt on Sleeping Beauty and the sleeves on Snow White. Cinderella didn't have any "fun" additions, but she is my favorite. I love pink and blue together....and of course, the blue has polka dots!!! I also love how the colors pop with the black background of the shirt.


Here is the dress (in spinning action) Reese picked to wear on Christmas. It ended up being covered up most of the day with one of the many princess dress-up costumes she received as gifts.

Here are some of the other dresses I have made for her. I have a huge bin of shirts waiting to be made into a fun new creation and a tote full of knits to add to them. Lee loves the U of M dress, and I have a shirt that match the one I used to make the dress. Reese wore the Minnie Mouse dress to Disney on Ice.

I also have a few that I was lucky enough to win as giveaways. The horse dress and the Mr Bubble dress where from Melissa at Nookie Skooter. She did a referral contest on her FB page. She picked one name from the people who where refered to her page. Whoever she picked received a costume dress as well as the friend who suggested her page to them. Luck for me, my mom was picked....so Reese received both dresses. We like to pair the horse dress with a cute pair of pink leggings that have brown horses on them and Reese's cowgirls boots. I made Reese a pair of yellow ruffled pants last spring that look great with the Mr. Bubble dress. Unfortunately, the pants are getting to be a little short (which will be nice in the spring) and JoAnn's isn't carrying the yellow fabric right now to make her a new, longer pair. I won the cute doll dress from Sofia at Chimi and Change. She designs such cute designs!!! The dress on the left is from Trisha at Night Owl. She had my name for a swap we did last summer/fall. I am also planning on getting a couple adult pieces off of her for me. Make sure to check out and "like" her FB page. She is always doing sun giveaways and discounts!

Of course, the baby dolls love up-cycled dresses too!

Reese loves dressing up like Jessie from Toy Story. She puts on her Jessie costume, asks for her cowgirl boots and then runs around the house yelling YEE-HAW!!!! She has requested a Jessie dress as her next up-cycle. Here is the shirt I am planning on using (from the Disney Store).