Upcycled giraffe summer dress

The people regularly reading my posts will have noticed that I am very into sew alongs. I love sew alongs because they usually challenge me to find my own style within given boundaries. Sew alongs inspire me to get out of my comfort zone. One of the Dutch Facebook groups I am a member of is organizing one with animal skin as its theme. Animal skin is not my favourite fabric, far from it even. This particular sew along is therefore totally up in my alley, how could I come up with a project that I would like and would have animal skin as a main feature?

First, I tried to get away with using the lion shirt I created by selling it as animal skin, lion skin is uni-yellow right? Although my entry was condoned, I felt I could do better, much better. So I googled animal skins and found one that I actually kind of like and could even love, giraffe skin. Coincidentally, giraffe skin is relatively easily created with some brown fabric and some bleach. I used an old water pen of my kids and filled it with bleach. Although not perfect, it did give me quite some control on the drawing process. When I started bleach coloring I didn't immediately got the right result (why would I practice right... just ignore the left upper side of the dress), but after drawing a while I was really satisfied.

The fabric I used was from a old short sleeved shirt from myself (which ironically already had two small bleach spots on it). The shirt had a ruffled front neckline and ruffled sleeve seams which I both salvaged for the final dress. I also kept the original bottom hem. This meant the dress sewed up very quickly. This is the best picture I have of the original shirt. I once plannend to make a bigger project of multiple shirts, although I did not actually start that project I was smart enough to make a before picture than.

The pattern I used is from Ottobre 3/2012, but I decided to ruffle the front of the dress instead of pleating. I cut a 62 width and a 80 length. I think she looks amazingly cute in the dress and I assume it will be worn a lot this summer.

Besides posting this animal inspired project today I also post at the Kids Clothes Week blog! Check it out here, I have written a post on how to make animal inspired clothes without featuring the actual animal or any of its parts.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).