Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #3: Spoopy

This one is also a Shirt-to-Dress Conversion, as well as technically being a Dress-to-Dress Conversion, since I used the skirt from a dress I made in 2015, which didn't even fit well then (and that was before the weight gain)

I knew I wanted to salvage the skirt somehow, and for a while the plan was to add an elastic waist.  Yeah, never did that.  But, when I decided to convert the other two skirts into dresses, I decided I'd do something similar with this, too.  And I had plenty of that haunted house print left, so of course I could use that for the bodice!

but...I also had this shirt, made from McCall's 7956 and that same haunted house cloth in 2016, and never worn--initially because it seemed so ridiculously voluminous, despite the six darts added to the back, and later  because of that weight gain (and not wanting to deal with picking out those six darts)

Well.  I called upon my stubbornness and dealt with those darts

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #2: Strawberry

In May of 2014 (eep!), I made this dress

And then not long after that, I ripped it along one of those sharp angles at the arm opening, patched it inelegantly, ripped it again, and gave up on it being a dress and turned the bodice into a waistband and made a side-zip skirt.  Then it got squirreled away in the "maybe I'll do something to make it fit again" pile after the weight gain.

And now I'm making this post...

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #1: Swirl

So, in June of 2015, I made this skirt

And although it is one of many things I outgrew in the years after, I still kept it, for a while letting it ride up over my abdomen and accepting it as...just...shorter, then eventually shifting it to the category of "maybe I can do something else with it someday."

And I finally have!

Utility Sewing...for Dolls

I store doll clothes in zip bags I made a few years ago--I can't find any posts about them here (I may have forgotten to tag 'em, because I know I made them less time ago than I started this blog--hey, I'm tired, that makes enough sense.)  They're super simple: front/back/zipper, no lining, no seam finishing.

They worked for years, but...things have been getting crowded, so I finally took the time to make more

 A random hand-full of mostly gifted fabrics, some of which have been seen here before (and one of which I'm wearing right now.)

I sewed four individually before I realized that batch sewing would probably be good, if only to reduce the need to switch between the straight stitch foot and zipper foot so often.

I mostly kept these simple, but I did serge the seam allowances

and the bag destined to hold doll socks and tights got a few pockets, so (in theory) I can keep basic styles sorted.

The only sewy oddness that happened was the way, when I top stitch along the fabric edge by the zipper,  I move the zipper pull by stopping with the needle down, raising the presser foot, then using a heavy needle to help maneuver the zipper pull out of the way, back beyond the presser foot

It takes both hands, and my camera is a DSLR which also really needs both hands, so this is the best recreation I could do.  And this particular vintage zipper is a bit...storage worn.

It's fine.

I'll figure out what goes where tomorrow.  Time for sleep now.