Refashions for Ponchik

I mentioned in my Emerald top round-up post yesterday that I had toiled the pattern last summer.  In general, I don't keep excess fabric around for such endeavors (although I have an old sheet that got holes in that I use for the purpose), but I did have a short yard of Rifle and Co. Birch rayon that I had bought at some point for refashioning my earlier Dottie Angel frock of the same, but ended up not doing before the dress left my closet for greener pastures.  I used the yard for the toile, but because the selvedges on Rifle and Co. are extremely wide and white (why??), I couldn't quite make the Emerald work as a wearable piece.  I had a similar problem with my Menagerie remnant and had to piece a bit of the side seam.

My main complaint about toiles is that you end up with fabric that is basically unusable for anything else, and it feels very wasteful to me.  The Emerald toile was just such a piece--I couldn't use it for anything else for me, and it seemed like a waste of decent fabric, albeit fabric I wasn't particularly keen to have in my closet again.

I decided to see if I could cut it down for Ponchik and add a skirt in a contrast fabric.  In my quest to find the perfect orange for my Poppy Rose skirt, I ended up with a skirt length of orange rayon-linen blend mystery fabric that wasn't quite the right orange for me.  

Fortunately, it went very well with the Rifle and Co. Birch fabric, so I cut a 12" length, seamed the sides, gathered it up, and popped it on the bottom of the (cut-down) top and Bob's your uncle.  (Well, not quite, but close enough).  I added a little self-cased belt too.  The nice thing about the contrast skirt is that I can cut it off and add a new one, or add another tier of fabric if it gets too short.  The top part is roomy enough she may get another season out of it if I do that.  She is in love with the dress and wears it constantly.

The other cut-down I did was to my Octopus dress.  I had made my octopus-loving girl a birthday dress a few years ago, and myself a matching one at the same time, but only wore mine a couple of times that year.  

It was really a bit too kitchy for me, so I've had it in the bin to cut down for her ever since.  She wore the original dress at least two summers (maybe even three) before we couldn't squeeze her into it any longer.  She's been longing for another octopus dress since.

I decided to cut it down from the top rather than cutting out a new pattern from the bottom, so I unpicked all the bias and kangaroo pocket, and pinched out the excess at the shoulders first, and then the side seams, which I think gave me more usable fabric to work with at the end then the usual way I cut down things for the girls.  I'll likely do this method again.

I think I ended up bringing the shoulder seam down 2", and in 2" all along the side seams, plus a bunch at the hem (14", maybe?)  I made a casing and waist-tie to mimic my own dresses this summer, and made the whole thing roomy and a bit overlong so she can get extra wear out of it.  I also made a matching mask at her request, out of the pocket piece.  She found it a bit hot compared to her normal jersey mask, however, so she might save it to the fall. 

Not a bad use of time and fabric!  I had made a small mountain of fabric leftovers to try and make stuff like this (and work through my fabric stash), but I realized a) the girls have enough clothes for now, and b) I mostly have enough stuff for now.  The only thing I may try to do is eke out another Emerald from the leftover Purple Violet Squish dress fabric.