Abigail's Dress: A Bridesmaid's Dress Recycled

Once upon a time a dear friend, Lisa, got married in May, 2006. She asked me to be her bridesmaid, along with another one of our roommates, Natasha.

We (and when I say "we," I mean "Natasha") made our beautiful bridesmaids dresses. To add a little something fun to the bodice and the skirt, I hand sewed (because that's all I'm good for) a beaded flower pattern on to them.

Yes, they were hot pink crepe-back satin. And they had a small train on the skirts. And they were gorgeous. And we loved them.

Now, imagine two girls in hot pink running around Temple Square. Yep. Everyone saw us and noticed us. I mean, hot pink satin is not standard fare around there. :)

With a picture, I guess it's not hard to imagine. :) This is Natasha and I in our dresses waiting for Lisa and Adam to come out of the sealing.

So I've had this beautiful dress that I absolutely love because it is beautiful (yes, I really do love the color of the fabric) and because it is very sentimental to me.

But I knew I would never wear it again.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I was in Chicago visiting Lisa, Adam, and Matthew. Lisa is pregnant and found out while I was there that she's having a girl! YAY! I knew I wanted to do something special for her. I decided that Lisa's little girl (whom they are naming Abigail--love!) NEEDED a dress made out of my bridesmaid dress. It was funny because the morning I left, Lisa's mother-in-law, Marta, suggested the same thing!

So I came home and started plotting. I knew I needed someone to sew the dress because I can't and didn't want to risk learning and then ruining my beautiful dress.

It's a good thing that I have a sister that loves me, knows how to sew, lives close, and is willing to entertain my crazy ideas. (Erin, move home soon so I can say the same thing about you too! ;) hahaha.)

We (and when I say "we," I definitely mean "Cait") embarked on this adventure of converting the bodice of my dress into a baby dress. Fortunately, Cait has a great mother-in-law that took the time to figure out how to make it work, because apparently it was a bit tricky.

And I'll be honest, literally all I did was act as cheerleader. I did none of the machine sewing and all of the purchasing the miscellaneous notions that were required (which weren't many since the dress was already lined and I had tulle from my skirt, YAY!).

This was the first time Cait had every made clothes. (She did great!) It took awhile to do, but she does have a baby so I didn't mind.

As the dress came near to completion, there was lots of extra fabric, so Cait decided that she wanted to make other things....

like a ruffily diaper cover. Who doesn't love a ruffily hot pink diaper bum?

and an adorable baby wipes case, matching hair bow, and a pacifier holder thingy.

Cait got real crazy with it. :) And I loved it all!!

And the dress is done! :)

Here is the overall look, modeled by my freakin' adorable niece, Rachel.

It's official, hot pink is a good color for her. :)

I picked up some cute little shoes to go with it too--which were on clearance at Target! I was looking for cream ones to break up the hot pink and match the ribbon, but these were what I found. They are perfect!

I'm so excited for Lisa to get it! Agh. It's killing me! :)