DIY - Downsizing a adult dress to fit a kid

Hello, friends of Hazelnutt House (",)

I was doing some packing and pulled out this tube dress (from Forever 21) that I used to wear.  My oh my... I think I have had this dress for close to 10 years!  I wore it even when I was preggers since it is really stretchy.  So, to extend its wardrobe life, I decided to downsize this dress into something that Kiddo can wear (",)  

Here's how the dress looks before the alteration.  It has elastic shirring at the top and waist area.

I decided to cut off the shirring on the top since I had to shorten the torso area to fit Kiddo.  Set the cutout portion aside for later use.

I eyeballed the dress and decided to take an inch and a half away from the top to bottom on one side.

I wanted an easy way out instead of torturing myself with the regular inner seam - I made two rows of stitches and trimmed off the excess with a scallop shears.  Not the best way to tame a seam, but this will do and it usually holds up pretty well (",)

After taking in the sides, I reattached the top shirring and added elastic round the entire top.  And that's that! I am done!

Here's how Kiddo looks in the dress.

She wanted it to be a long dress, so I made it into a midi.  A long dress would be too cumbersome on a kid.

Check out my other clothing makeover projects:

DIY: Top to Skirt to Dress project 

DIY: Adult's top to kid's dress

Talk to you ladies soon!

No more mushy soap bars!

Hihi friends of Hazelnutt House!

I am currently using this bar of Badger Rose Geranium soap bar which I bought from iHerb.  I do not have a place for a soap dish in my shower area.   So, I came up with this idea of storing the soap in a pouch so that it will not be  exposed to 'excessive flooding' while it stays in the shower. 

Read on to find out more (",)

I bought this shower cloth at Daiso.  I picked this nylon version instead of the cotton one as I figured it will not retain water as well as cotton and therefore, results in less bacteria growth.  Nylon should dry faster than cotton too (",)

So, I cut out a small portion of the shower cloth and made it into a simple drawstring pouch. 

I keep the soap in the pouch in the shower area.

For the first few days, I took the bar of soap out and placed it back into the pouch to air dry after use. 

Then I decided why not just use it while it is still in the pouch?!

And so, I did and I love it this way.  Instead of lathering it and transferring the lather onto a loofah, I simply wet the pouch with the bar of soap inside it and used it as I would a loofah, all over my body.

Once I am done, I hang it in a dry area of my shower, away from any exposure to water when others are showering.  With this pouch, the soap bar remains dry till the next time I use it.  No more mushy soap bars (",) 

DIY - First it was a top... then a skirt... finally, a dress...

Hey hey :) 

With great success converting the owl dress, I decided to do something to this brolly top that I have, but never worn.

I wanted to convert it into a simple skirt for Kiddo to wear at home but in the end, I turned it into a dress. 

Step 1: Cut off the top of the singlet. 

Tip: fold top inside out and then fold the bottom towards the top.  Use the bottom hem as a guide to cut.  Using this method, the bottom hem of the singlet is left intact, therefore I do not need to worry about hemming up any raw edges. 

I used my scallop pinking shears for this coz the material curls like crazy when I use a pair of regular scissors. 

Step 2: Sew elastic band onto the newly cut edge.  (This will serve as the waistband).  Tug on the elastic band as you work the machine.

After the elastic band has been securely sewn.

Step 3: Use the secured elastic band as a guide and fold the edge inwards.  Sew along the fold to achieve a neater waistband.

Yup, in no time, the skirt was completed.  Kiddo pulled out a blue top to match.

After seeing Kiddo pair the blue top with the skirt, I thought why not convert it into a full dress instead.

So, the conversion continues...

Step 4: Draw a line across the bottom of the tee after deciding how long the bodice should be.

Step 5: Fit the top into the waistband of the skirt.

Step 6: Secure all around with pins.  Make sure the side hems of the top matches the side hems of the skirt.

Step 7: Sew along the wasitband of the skirt.

Note: Keep checking to ensure that the excess portion of the tee remains flat and not caught as excess fabric by the machine.

Tadaa!!

I suggest doing this kind of 'eyeballing' sewing only for kids' clothes coz we adults are way more particular about how the end product looks.

DIY - Converting an adult's top to a kid's dress

Hello, friends of Hazelnutt House!

I was looking through my wardrobe and chiding myself for buying unnecessary clothing items that I end up not wearing.  I came across this owl sleeveless top that I adore... the owl looks bright and cheery but I just haven't gotten down to wearing it.  

So I decided to do some snipperty snip and convert it into a dress for The Kiddo. 

This is not an accurate tutorial coz most of the time I eyeballed the material and just snipped.  No exact measurements taken. 

Step 1: Slim the sides by about 1.5 inches. 

Step 2: Sew along the line and snip with a pinking shears - no need to seal the hem this way.

Instead of taking in the shoulder straps and resulting in a tight armhole, I decided to add elastic to the neckline. 

Step 3: Sew elastic band along the neckline on the 'inner' side.  Make sure to tug the elastic as you are sewing.

Here's how it looks after the elastic is sewn in.  I do not like this finish coz the ruffles tend to flip downwards, revealing the elastic band. 

So, I added this step.

Step 4: Fold in the material, using the elastic band as a guide and sew.

When the side is folded in along the elastic band, it looks like a seam is formed. 

Yups.. this is the end result of the neckline.

The Kiddo is happy with it (",) 

Well, I did not just stop here with this adult-owl-top-conversion-to-kid's-drees ... I converted another clothing item.  Check out my next entry (",)