DIY Summer Maxi dress - How to Reuse/ Recycle Old Clothes - FREE Pattern

We all have those tops / kurtis with beautiful prints and designs which we are unable to wear. This can happen either because they don't fit you anymore ☺ or sometimes we wear them so many times but they still look new. Usually women find it difficult to discard such tops and tend to pile them in their cupboards. I do that sometimes. ☺ I had a very pretty cotton printed kurti which doesn't fit me anymore but I didn't want to discard. This made me think of making a cute summer maxi dress for my daughter. 

So I have come up with this dress pattern which is very simple to make and I can assure that by making one you can recycle your old yet beautiful cotton kurtis and make them wearable again.

* The pictures and instructions are offered here for free. Please don't repost any of my content without permission. Thanks!

I have designed this dress by making -

• Inverted Box Pleat in centre at waist of front & back
• Flared sleeve
• Waist band with border design

To begin with, I have first made a yoke pattern of the dress which is given below. This pattern is based on measurements of a 2 year old and I have used it for cutting both front & back yoke. 

Then I made the Flared sleeve pattern. For this I used below given basic sleeve draft which is again based on measurements of 2 year old.

Cut and open the above given sleeve draft and then used this as STEP - 1 for making below given Flared sleeve pattern. You have to slit the basic sleeve in centre (i.e. folded paper line) and open the sleeve at hem to add flare (see STEP - 2).

After making the yoke and flared sleeve draft of the Summer maxi dress, you can make inverted box pleat below waist in the dress. For making this pleat, below given is a simple diagram which explains calculation for making a Inverted Box Pleat -

To know the detailed & stepwise method of making this cute summer maxi dress from an old kurti, do watch my DIY video given below.☺

Did you like this tutorial? Wouldn’t it be nice to just say “thanks Shraddha for all your work on this”?

I love hearing from readers of my blog so please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you thought about this post/make! Any hints or tips to improve my sewing are always much appreciated too!☺

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Thank you & Happy Sewing!

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