hazel and company: $2 Snow White Dress Made from Thrifted Clothes

I started a fun birthday tradition for our kids a few years ago. The first present they get to open is in the morning and it's special birthday clothes. Sam usually gets a robot t-shirt and shorts. Emmett loves dinosaurs, so that's often the theme of his outfit. Weston likes shirts with funny sayings. But for my girls?

Princess dresses, of course!

And I'm not talking about those pretty, sparkley, super cute and super overpriced dress-up dresses you find at Wal-mart and such. Come on! They're like disposable dresses. They're hard to wash. They stain. And they rip. Very easily.

So, what's the best thing to make princess dresses out of?

Why, super cheap thrifted clothes in excellent condition, of course!

There's a great little thrift shop in my town called The Catholic Thift Shop and on the last weekend of the month they put ALL their clothes on sale for fifty cents. And this is the very best way I've found to snag cheap, great quality knits in a variety of colors and patterns.

And knits are where it's at if you want to make a pretty AND comfotable AND washable princess dress. I've tried a few other fabrics,thick santeen and guaze. And they've worked, too. But my favorite is definitely knit.

Want to make one, too?

Alright, here we go...let's get this half-baked tutorial started!

The first step is to either rummage through your closets for the perfect fabrics or head to a thrift store or yard sale.

Then grab your favorite peasant dress pattern (google around if you want to find free tutorials). Using a darker blue, like navy, make the bodice pieces an empire waist...

Cut the sleeves out of a lighter blue and applique red teardrops to them. If I'd thought ahead I would have used fusible webbing to do this step. But I got to cutting and then realized I'd have to pin them really really good.

Cut the skirt out of a pretty soft yellow fabric. This one isn't actually a knit, but it was the perfect yellow and it's a sturdy fabric, so I went with it. This is actually the bottom part of a plus-sized woman's shirt. Score!

Next, put it all together! I sewed elastic in for the neck and sleeves, added a cute little bow to the front and also added a white under skirt with a bit of white eyelet lacing (which was from the bottom of a thrifted fifty cent skirt!)

Oh, and I covered a headband in red felt and added a bow. Snow White has to have her red headband, right?

And...voila! You have a beautiful dress your little one can eat yogurt or popsicles in and you can actually throw it in the washer when she's done.