Beginning to get into the red, white, and blue spirit just in time for the 4th of July!! I actually loved this piece when I found it - the flowers and little bird accents were my favorite part (accents rule, especially Australian!) and I wanted to make them more of the focal point. I'm not really into skirts this long that aren't super flowy, so I thought I'd make a little change to get this piece rockin'.

I trimmed off the elastic waist as well as about a foot and a half of the skirt.

Here's where I'm going...it's going to be turned into a little dress deal today, so let's go through the rest of the steps.

Next, I pinned down the raw edges where I cut with some pins and got it prepped for some sewing.

I'm going to add straps to the piece, so I cut a few strips off of the leftover material...

...and pinned the edges under to prep for sewing.

Sew time! I sewed the strip of fabric that will become my new straps, stitched down the top of my new dress, and took in two inches on each side to tighten it up.

Ooh, and I had to take care of the slit in the back. Clearly I didn't need to expose the area from my mid-thigh to lower back, so I pinned it closed...

...and stitched it in place.

Next I took the strip of fabric I sewed for the straps and cut it in half.

I attached both straps to the front of my dress...

...and then to the back and got them sewed in place. My sundress was complete just with the addition of a red tank underneath!

I had to take care of some watering which I'll be honest, I'm not the best at.

My thumb is definitely not green and I couldn't even grow a little kit of basil seeds that I got at IKEA. I know, why was I buying basil seeds at IKEA? They got me at the point-of-purchase rack by the register, it was less than two bucks, and I like basil. However, the buds hardly made their way out of the soil, so I'd like to think it wasn't all me...

I'm good at this kind of watering.