Upcycle Girls' Dresses to Get Couture Style for Pennies

I adore the children's couture clothing lines. Lola et Moi makes me weak kneed. Possibly from sticker shock. As much as I love fashion, I simply won't spend several hundred dollars on a little girl's dress. Little girls only have so much time in their lives to make mud pies, climb trees with their brothers and slide into home base. They shouldn't have to spend that time sitting around while they worry about getting something on a dress that costs more than their cool new bicycle. Little girls also grow and grow and grow. Right out of that dress. Right out of that absolutely precious skirt. Right out of the ruffle leggings.

So, does that mean no couture dresses in their future? Nope. It just means you'll have to make your own line of adorable clothing. You can do it all from scratch, but if you aren't a whiz at drafting your own patterns and sewing, you'd probably do better with upcycling nicely made inexpensive dresses to get that look for a fraction of the price.

Oh, look at those adorable ruffles. If only you had a serger and the ability to use one. Don't fret. A quick trip to the local fabric store and you'll be swimming in awesome trims. I do have a serger, but I am new to using it, so I still hit that aisle pretty frequently. Some of my favorite trims are the Project Runway ruffles by the yard and the mini pompom trim. I also like to look at chiffon rolls, lace and elastic. Lots of elastic. You can get a neat ruched look in seconds with some elastic.

Of course, you don't want to go overboard here. The idea is to save money on the couture look, not to spend twice that amount on cool trim. I check for clearanced trims, remnants and coupons before I make any final decisions.

Right now, I am upcycling an adorable size 8 pink polka dot dress from Gymboree. When I looked at it, I noticed there were two colors of pink and white and black in it. Now that I have my basic palette, I can sort through my trims. A black and white checked ribbon, some hot pink tulle and lighter pink pompom trim all have the right colors. Oh, look! Satin ribbon in the same light pink shade. Since I know I want to pair this with pink and black striped leggings if I can find them, I'm not putting stripes in the dress. However, stripes and polka dots or stripes and floral patterns usually look pretty cute together.

"Whoa. Are you kidding me? I could never do that. I can't figure out what goes with what at all. Guess I won't ever have couture dresses for my little girl!"

Don't panic. I felt that way, too, at first. You need to start looking at your favorite lines. Really look at them. See how they use a thin stripe with a big floral print or how they tuck that gingham underskirt in there? Oh, that's how it is done! Still feeling nervous? Maybe it is because, in your heart of hearts, you really like the deceptively simple couture look instead. That's okay. I do, too, and sometimes that is the style I try to recreate. I don't try to upcycle little girls' dresses to get that look, though. You want to find striped men's dress shirts and linen fabrics for the simple couture style.

I wanted a sort of ruched skirt on my dress so the hot pink tulle petticoat will show. I found a cute parlor skirt tutorial that showed a really simple short cut for getting the look and it works well with an already made dress.

When I wanted to figure out ruffles on the serger, I searched for tutorials on youtube. All the information you need is out there for free. It is just a matter of finding it!

If you fear sewing machines more than killer bees, upcycling just might not be for you. In that case, there is another option. It will probably cost a bit more than DIY, but you may get lucky and score a really good deal. Check eBay and find the perfect Lola et Moi or Persnickety dress for a lot less. I've seen a lot of new without tags (NWT) listings for things that never made it out of the closet before the seller's little girl outgrew them. A lot of other dresses are listed as gently used.