Repurposing Clothes Part 2

The other day I talked about taking one of my old dresses and turning it into a princess dress for my 2 year old for Halloween.  You can find that post here.  As I mentioned in that post, my 4 year old was very sad after I finished it because she wanted a dress like it too. 
So today I took this dress

and made a dress for my 4 year old and this time it only took me an hour and a half.  After spending over an hour ripping the seams the other day, I discovered that it wasn't even necessary because I didn't need that material so this time I just just cut the seams out.
 

I took my daughters measurements, bust-21.5 inches, waist-19.5 inches, arm pit to shoulder-5 inches which meant that I would need to cut the material with bust-22 inches, waist-20 inches, arm pit to shoulder-6 inches in order to leave room for seams. 
I folded each panel in half and marked them using pins, 5 inches at the waist, 5.5 inches at the bust and 6 inches to the shoulder.  The other day I free handed the pattern and cut it out and only realized after I had it together that one side was slightly longer than the other and I ended up having to do a tapered hem on that side to even it up.  Oh well, it taught me a great lesson which is why I folded it in half to mark and cut this time so both sides would be even.

After marking it, I cut out each piece, leaving the bottom of the dress the same size as the original and just tapering up to the smaller waist and bust.

I left the original seam for the neck on the front panel so I just had to pin the neck on the back panel and the arms on both panels and stitch them.

I used a zigzag type stitch since this material is very stretchy and I wanted the stitches to have a little bit of give in them.

Next, I pinned the shoulders together like this and did another zigzag stitch.

You might be wondering why, on my earlier measurements, I left an extra half inch of material on the waist and bust but I left a whole inch on the arm pit to shoulder measurement.  Well here is why.  If you wore this dress with the shoulders like they are, it would leave a raised area and would be uncomfortable.  So after I did the zigzag stitch, I folded the stitch over and ran a straight stitch on it so it would lay flat across the top of the shoulders.

After that, all I had left was to pin and sew the side seams.

There you have it!  An hour and a half later, the dress was finished, even after being interrupted to get rid of a "yucky yucky bug", helping my 2 year old use the restroom and changing and feeding my 5 month old.  Without interruptions it probably would have taken about an hour.

Here is a picture of both princess dresses.

It is amazing to see their faces light up and watch them swish and swirl around in one of "Mommy's beautiful dresses," and it was also thoroughly enjoyable creating something new, especially something that they love so much.  I may have to make them some more clothes, or maybe I can create something new for myself from my old clothes!