Girls denim dress

As part of my sewing I have always enjoyed upcycling garments to create something completely new. All my friends and relatives now ask if I would like their old items before they discard them, most of the time I just take off any fastenings (zips, buttons, etc) but other times I keep the whole garment, the only problem is that I now have a stash of old garments - especially jeans.

I have decided to start using them up or getting rid of them and started with this little girls dress.

To start I took a top that fit my niece to make a pattern.
I folded the top in half. Note - I didn't fold it on the side seams but at the centre. I then traced round the edges to create the pattern - don't forget to add seam allowance to your pattern.
I then led the jeans out flat. I left all the seams intact as I wanted to use the side seams as centre front and back decorative seams on the dress.
I pinned the pattern onto the legs of the jeans so the side seams became the fold, then cut around the other edges of the pattern. I then repeated this for the back piece.
Once I had cut the pieces out I stitched them together at the side seams. I bound the seams so that they wouldn't rub.
At this stage I done a quick fit check on my niece.
To finish the dress I used some pink & white polka dot bias binding. I applied this in one continuous strip by starting at one underarm and ending back where I had begun.
Buttonholes and large pink floral buttons finished the top opening to make for easy dressing.

This was a fairly quick and easy dress to make - the longest part was applying the bias binding.