DIY Sailor Pin Up Dress - Make Thrift Buy #3

♫ Make Thrift Buy intro music ♫

Hi everyone, and welcome to episode 3 of Make

Thrift Buy. A show where you guys send me
clothes that you found online and I try to

re-create them.
Today’s challenge was suggested by Victoria

Valenzuela, and it’s of this awesome Pin
Up Girl Clothing Sailor Dress, which retails

for $132 dollars. Now I was lucky enough to
find this dress at the thrift store the other

day, which I thought could be used for this
project. So…I thought I’d give this one

a go!
The first thing I did was to make a cut out

on the front of the dress, just like the one
on the picture.

I drew the cutout on with chalk, and I hacked
away at this with some scissors. Then I folded

all the raw edges back inside the dress about
half an inch, and I stuck some pins in to

hold it all in place.
I then very carefully sewed around the cut

out really close to the edges. Using a straight
stitch but pulling the fabric slightly as

I went because the dress material was slightly
stretchy, and I didn’t want the stitches

to snap, andddd I ended up with a pretty nice
looking cut out.

Now, there is a distinct lack of anchors on
my dress. For this I decided I would make

a stencil so all my anchor shapes would be
the same size, and…I totally forgot what

anchors looked like. Thank you Google Images!
First I drew an anchor onto some cardboard,

and then attempted to cut it out precisely.
Which is actually A LOT harder than you would

think! A good 20 minutes later and I had a
real dodgy looking stencil, but…it let me

trace the basic shape of an anchor so I figured
it would be good enough.

Then I went to the craft store to get some
fabric paint, but the guy at the craft store

actually recommended this Posca pen would
work fine on fabric. I was a bit dubious that

it would show up well on black fabric, but
I also thought that using a pen rather than

paint would be easier so I trusted him and
I went for it. And to my amazement, it worked!

So I did one, and then I just repeated this
all over my dress.

Soo…Five hours and hundreds of anchors later
and a shape of an anchor is basically etched

into my brain. I’m not going to be forgetting
what an anchor looks like any time soon. So

apparently to set the marker into the fabric
you iron it at a high temperature without

steam on the reverse side of the fabric. So
I did that. Now, because I have terrible foresight,

I drew my hundreds of anchors before testing
that they would actually stay on the fabric

when washed.
Yeah…

BUT, to test whether this pen works on fabric
I popped the dress into my washing machine.

I’m really not happy about this.
[washing machine noises]

Please be okayyy
Yep, and…heaps of them faded. Like…heaps

are basically gone. Yeah…
Okay so…It’s actually not that bad. As

the dress dried a lot of them became a lot
clearer to see, and most stayed on pretty

well. So, I just went back over the faded
ones with the Posca pen again, and I made

a mental note to myself to only ever gently
hand wash the dress in the future.

So back on track, my dress had a black tie
in the front, whereas the one from Pin up

Girl Clothing has a white tie. So I simply
snipped off the black ties. Then I used these

pieces to make a stencil for two white tie
pieces. I added a seam allowance, and also

made them a little bit longer.
I cut out four of these, then pinned them

together two at a time, and sewed using a
straight stitch all away around the edges;

leaving the bottom edge open so I could turn
them the right way around. Then I attached

these to the front of the dress and sewed
them on.

So the real question is…
How did I go?

♫ music plays ♫
So in conclusion, if you’re lucky enough

to find this style of dress in a thrift store—
then this something you can really easily

make.
[Scissor snipping and zipper noise effects]

So my version by Pin Up Girl Clothing: $132.
My version: $8.

Now I do have to say that the one on Pin Up
Girl Clothing is probably quite a bit nicer,

with a full skirt, and inbuilt pockets. Plus
my one is black, theirs is navy, BUT I think

for $8 this is a pretty decent replica.
So let me know what you think, and keep those

suggestions coming, and I’ll see you all
next time!

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