Refashion Friday Inspiration: Lace Yoke Sweatshirt Dress

If you are somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere that is as chilly as my studio in Brighton, you may be looking at this dress and thinking, 'That's what I need'! That's a damn cosy dress pictured above there, I just wish it was mine... I'm thinking a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath (something like Winnie's, perhaps), woolly grey tights, boots and a mustard cardigan!

If this refashioned/remade garment is looking a bit familiar to you, it's because it is a reworking of a previous idea. The grey sweatshirt I made for myself and the navy version I made for Jane share the same lace yoke detail. However, for the dress I went for short puff sleeves rather than the 3/4 length ones, and added a skirt section. This remake took two second-hand men's navy sweatshirts which were thankfully almost exactly the same shade. It's semi-fitted and just pulls on with no fastenings. I used the original neck ribbing to remake the new neck finishing, and harvested one of the waist band ribbing to fashion the sleeve cuffs. There was, joyously, very little wasted sweatshirts at the end of this remake.  

As with most refashioning projects, the original sweatshirts threw up some extra challenges. One of the sweatshirts had some permanent marks on the front, rendering that panel pretty useless. I used the good back panel from the sweatshirt to cut the dress's front piece and opened up one pair of sleeves to cut out the dress's back piece, forming a seam along the Centre Back.

Who says refashioning/remaking garments is only about taking shirts and T-shirts and making pretty, flimsy, whimsical tops?! Happy Winter-Refashioning, my friends.