We were supposed to be moving house round about now but that didn’t happen and we’re not sad about it – our buyer changing her mind actually turned out to be the right thing for us and packing our entire house over the Christmas period, because we both had 2 weeks off, proved to be a good decluttering exercise too.

I got rid of a huge stash of clothes – many that I hadn’t worn for a very, very long time. One thing that nearly ended up in the charity shop bag was this dress. A £5 bargain that I picked up in the supermarket a good few months back. I’ve worn it a couple of times, but it’s not really a good fit – probably because I eat too much chocolate, drink too much wine and don’t go running as often as I should!

Anyway, despite telling myself I was going to be ruthless in my decluttering, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out, nor the other one that I picked up in a slightly different pattern.

So, because I’ve been bitten by the Great British Sewing Bee bug once again, I thought I’d refashion said dress. Remember the Gingko Crochet Top that I made last year? Well, I used the principles of that for this remake, but I used the V-Stitch as a basis for the crochet element and made a more square top. Definitely not as pretty as Genuine Mudpie’s pattern, but this time I wanted to see if I could come up with something myself.

I had about three-quarters of a ball of Patons 100% Cotton DK in black left from a previous project. Once I made the front I realised that I didn’t have enough yarn to make the front and back of the crochet top the same size. So I went for a square shaped neckline on the front and a straight neckline on the back, with the back section being about half the depth of the front.

I wanted to keep the side seams of the existing dress and because the front and back pieces of the crochet yoke weren’t the same size this meant that the back piece of fabric needed to be longer (or higher at the top) than the front. I’d like to say I took lots of detailed measurements and really thought about what I was doing and how I was going to cut the fabric, but that wasn’t the case at all. As is my usual style, I just made it up as I went along – and it worked, sort of. I made some binding from scraps to go around the armholes and hide the raw edges of the back, longer section of fabric.

I kept the bottom seam of the dress too. It was a little snug around my middle so I split the side seams a little at the bottom and attempted to add a little curved seam here to let the top hang better. These curved elements are definitely not even! Apologies for my awkwardness in the following photos – courtesy of Matey, my resident photographer!

I’m shockingly bad at measuring, cutting and stitching accurately and the fabric had a bit of give in it so there are definitely some shonky elements to this top but I think it turned out ok. Obviously, The Mr noticed it was a bit wonky in places – hey ho!

Despite my horrendous sewing skills I have a few more neglected tops and dresses that might get a refashion. It’s quite a nice feeling wearing and showing off something that you’ve made yourself. So – TA DAH!

What do you think? Anyone else had any adventures with crochet clothing?