DIY Friday: How To Turn a Dress Into a Heart-Back Blouse

Hello there lovelies,

We're on a DIY mission today - a mission for me to finally post this DIY that I photographed almost a month ago! You guys that follow me on Facebook might remember me throwing a slight tantrum on my weekend trip to Hervey Bay. I'm such a bad travelling blogger! I forget to bring half my gadgets with me, and then throw tantrums because my beautifully planned posts go to waste. Well not this one!

Equipment required for this project: A dress that is too small in the thighs (pictured above, although it kinda just looks like I'm pointing at my crotch for no reason), an old crochet tablecloth, sewing machine, tailors chalk, sewing pins, scissors, plain white paper, & a pencil.

First, I took note of what button my dress started getting tight at. This is where we're going to chop it off. Take out your tailors chalk, and some kind of flat surface (usually a ruler is recommended, but I like to use The Boyfriend's magazine spines). Now draw a line at the spot that you want to cut the fabric. Grab your scissors, and cut along the line.

This is what you'll be left with! Already, we have a perfectly nice blouse - all we need to do is hem the bottom edge of the blouse so that the fabric doesn't fray. At this point I decided that my blouse was still a little too boring, and decided to add a heart-shape cut out at the back.

I really just winged this bit. I took out some paper, and experimented with the positioning and size until it covered the area that I wanted my heart to go. Then I whipped out my pencil & free-hand drew what is possibly the best heart-shape I have ever drawn in my life. Alternatively, you could find a heart template on the web, print it out & trace it to get your heart shape. Whatever you decide, you'll need to cut the heart shape out next.

Now, we're going to pin the heart to the back of our blouse. Again, I played around with the positioning a bit until I got the heart in the right position. Try to pin it down fairly firmly, as next you're going to cut around outline of this heart to get the heart shape in the back of your blouse.

Alright, now lay out your tablecloth. To make sure you get a big enough piece of tablecloth to cover the heart-shaped hole in your blouse, cut around the rectangle of the piece of paper that you cut your heart template out of. You're left with a rectangle of crochet fabric that you can manipulate better to completely cover the hole that if you just cut out a heart shape.

You're on the final step! Pin your crochet rectangle into place over the heart shape in the back of your blouse. Make sure it covers the hole completely, and that this is enough overlap for the crochet piece to be sewn onto the blouse fabric. Now whack this baby into your sewing machine, and sew around the heart shape. Now, all that's left to do is pose like a wacko in your cute new blouse:

I styled mine with my favourite jumpsuit from Trade Secret ($29.95), a belt from Trade Secret ($5.95), sandals from Trade Secret ($14.95), and an owl necklace from my beautiful friend Sarah. I also annoyed The Boyfriend by making very un-serious faces into the camera while he was trying to seriously photograph me. Enjoy!

Until next time, xo.

P.S. Here's some more really cute heart-related DIY's for you to try: lace heart cardigan, heart elbow patches for a sweater, heart-knee jeans, a heart sweatshirt, another heart sweatshirt, and how to get heart-shaped bokeh from your camera.