Feeling Crafty - Dress Into a Top AND a Scarf

Image courtesy of Roxy

I popped into the Sports Basement today, hoping to find something new and exciting to wear. (Their street wear section is a little secret of mine for finding relatively affordable, stylish things.) I found this dress, and I liked it, but I don't wear dresses very often. "Man, if only this was a top," I thought to myself. "Wait a minute! I can do that!"

Turning a dress into a top usually requires only a seam or two. I'm a novice when it comes to sewing, but a strait seam on a nonstretchy fabric is easily doable for me. I would never do this with an expensive dress, (or at least, I wouldn't do it myself,) because there is the possibility of ruining it. Usually dresses cost more than tops, too, so this isn't necessarily cost effective, either. However, this dress, normally $50, was $38 curtesy of Sports Basement pricing, and with my friends and family discount, (thanks, Cole!) the grand total was $32. "I'd pay $32 dollars for a nice top," I decided.

At home, I tried the dress on, marked where I'd like the seam to be, and removed it. Then I took a ruler, measured 1/2 inch below my initial marking and added a new mark. This was 11 inches from the hem of the dress. I moved my ruler along the hem, marking 11 inches above it over and over again until made it all the way around. Then I did the same thing with the lining, only I made it a little bit shorter than the top layer, so it wouldn't hang out. Next came the scary part - cutting my brand new dress! I took a deep breath and snipped. When that was done, I tried it all on again, to check my handiwork before pinning and ironing the seams. Then zip zip on the sewing machine and I was done! Here's the result:

I was feeling proud as I looked over at the leftover dress fabric. It was so pretty it seemed like a crime to let it go to waste! Rather than let it go to waste, I hemmed both pieces, and then I sewed them together at the ends, making a big loop - an infinity scarf! Here's the finished scarf:

The best part is that now I feel like I got a deal - $32 for a top and a scarf that nobody else will have? Hooray!

P.S. If you're loving this top as much as I am, but don't want to go the dress-to-top route, it turns out Roxy sells a top in this fabric. (Thank goodness it looks different or I'd feel really stupid!) You can get to it by clicking on the picture. It currently retails for $44.50