Ladies Top to Girly Dress

On one of my recent trips to my local thrift store I found this adorable super small top.  It was $.99 day and I really liked the fabric, I was thinking it would make a cute tote. I was looking through all of my finds and Little Miss saw this and thought it was a dress for her.  After trying it on her I realized that with only a little alteration it would be just perfect.

I removed one row of the elastic smocking about 2 inches from the “skirt” and then chopped the top off, I finished the edge with a stitch on my machine that looks like a blanket stitch (I’ve lost my manual and I have no idea what it’s called).  I did the same thing to the smocking about 2 inches from the top and cut off and finished the edges.  I used this strip to make the straps.  I also cut another strip of smocking off of the scrap to make a headband, I just stitched a seam at the correct size and ta-da, matching headband!

So here’s my super cute $.99 dress, I had brown thread on hand.  The great thing is that she will be able to wear this for several years, the smocking is loose fitting, with room to grow and the length is generous.  I will definitely keep on the look out for smocked tube tops, this was just to easy!