Upcycling Dress From Vintage Tablecloth

I kept this tablecloth from the fifties for ages now – and finally I knew, what I would do with this beautifull bit of embroidered cloth: An upcycling dress!

Okay, let's start...

All you need is:

• A beautifull tablecloth
• Scissors
• A sewing-machine
• Pins and thread

That's pretty all. The pattern is quite easy, as you will see in the next step.

Cut your cloth in 2 similar pieces. One piece is for you front, and one for your back. The width is deterimined by your hips (the widest part of your body ;-). The length of you taste – that is, how long the dress should be (above your knees, below etc.)

I cut my tablecloth actually into three parts, because of the embroidery: I wanted the square to be in the middle of the front. Since it was in the middle of the cloth, I cut two pieces for the back and sewed them together to one piece.

First I took a t-shirt to locate the right position for the cutting. Then I sewed the joints for the shoulders and fixed the material by zigzag seam.

Then I zigzaged the cloth on the sides. After that I pinned the side seams. For "sleeves" I just left enough space for my arms. After sewing the side seam, if ironed the cloth where the sleeves should be, and pinned it, in order to get a nive seam. Then I sewed.

The cutting of the dress is quite simple too. I took a long piece of cloth, pinned it to the cutting (right side in right side) and sewed it. Then I ironed the long piece of cloth into the cutting, fixed it again by pins, and tried to sew it as even as possible in order to get a nice (visible) seam.

Just a side-note: I cut the cloth in such a way, that I had not to sew the hemline of the dress. The pattern of the tablecloth allowed me to use the nice embroidery instead, which looks really nice.

Since the pattern of the dress is quite simple (only two rectangles), it is nice to have a belt to give it a little bit of "form". If it is possible to use a bit of the table cloth it is even nicer. So did I: I cut one long piece twice as broad as the belt should be. Then I ironed it, so that I was able to pin it together and easily sew it together.