Hannah Elliman is our go-to girl for up-cycling inspiration and trust us, you will not be disappointed. . Recycle Week 2020 is here and we wanted to share another of her incredible creations. Keep scrolling and for even more be sure to head over to Hannah’s feed.

I loved the colour of this sheer pink dress I found in Banrardo’s but knew I wouldn’t get any wear out of it. I couldn’t leave the fabric behind and decided to take it home and recreate it into a floaty-ish shirt with some pleated sleeves!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

It was a bit more challenging than I thought because the dress was made up of thin panels of chiffon rather than a large piece of fabric for the front and a large piece for the back. I began by unpicking all the panels.
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For the front I restitched the panels so that the right and left side of the blouse had matching french seams (because the fabric is sheer I wanted the seams to look neat). I also did the same with the lining fabric as I wanted the front lined. I then used an old sleeve pattern from another dress to make the pleated sleeves. Again, stitching the narrow panels so that the left and right sleeves had seams in matching places.
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Because of the narrow pieces of chiffon there wasn’t much fabric to work with so I had to do the back of the shirt in the fabric from the lining of the dress.
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From this up-cycle I learned that if looking to completely remake an item, it’s easier if there are as few seams as possible and the fabric pieces when deconstructed are not narrow panel pieces.

But I enjoyed up-cycling this and will wear it so much more than I would have as a dress so all in all, a good few hours spent sewing with all the coffee and re-runs of Friends.

Feeling inspired this Recycle Week? Why not get involved and be sure to share your creations with us, we would love to see.

Want to feature on The-Thrift? Comment below and we’ll get in touch!