Using a Thrift Store Dress as Pattern

Several weeks ago, I found a cute little dress for Miss Tickles at the thrift store for a whopping $.75. She looks adorable in it, and it is super easy to put on a two year old because it just has buttons on the top with the rest of the skirt open and ties. No pulling over the head or having to step into it! Pair it with some cute little leggings or bloomers, and it’s great!

Original Toddler Dress

Since the dress works so perfectly on her, I decided to try and make her another one for her Easter dress. Using the original dress as a pattern, I made some pattern pieces to make more dresses just like it. I just drew an outline 1/4 in larger than each part of the dress to account for seams.

Making Pattern from Thrift Store DressThere were six pieces for the bodice, two ties, and four panels for the skirt. I needed about 1 1/2 yards of fabric to make a 2t-4t size dress.

I don’t have a lot of experience with making dresses like this without any instructions, so I will admit I was trying to figure it out myself and had to do about an hour of extra work with ripping seams and redoing before I finally found this tutorial for the bodice. That made my life a whole lot easier!

Sewing Dress Bodice

After sewing the bodice together, the skirt part was easy to do. (I didn’t have enough of the blue fabric, so I added the pink with the blue border. There are so many options to make this dress unique).

New Toddler Dress

After adding buttons, the dress was complete!

New Toddler Dress Front and BackShe loves it!

Toddler DressIf you have an outfit for yourself or your kids that you really like, try using it as a pattern to make another one!

 

 

 

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