Up-cycled Color-blocked Celestial Pullover--With a Review

 Can I just say that I love to up-cycle/refashion/reuse?  I love going to thrift stores and clearance racks imagining the possibilities all for pennies on the dollar when it comes to fabric. It's a thrill. Needless to say, I love this challenge and interestingly enough my outfit looks VERY similar to the last go around of this challenge. And interestingly enough that dress still fits and it is one of her favorites. So why not go with the same color scheme again? 

Since Figgy's generously let us try one of their patterns that they have extended up to tween sizes (YEAH!), I thought that would be a great starting place.

May I present the Celestial Pullover Refashion of a Dress with an Up-cycled layering T to go with it.

It started with a dress of mine that I picked up from Target for 75% off. I liked the color and pattern of the fabric, but the dress itself was not very flattering.

From the dress I was able to cut the main part of the pullover (with a little extra piecing to get the cowl the right size). However, Sophia was hoping it would be a little longer. That's when we came up with the red color blocking on the bottom. I found some left over interlock knit I had laying around and it was perfect...color-wise and also because it was a little heavier than the gray which helped it to hang better. To add the length I just traced the curve of the bottom of the pattern and then measured equally all the way around to get the block. The tie from the dress can also be used now that the pullover is more tunic length, which she kind of liked.

Major Mama has already done a great review and covered the basics of what you need and the likes, so I won't go over that again. But I did want to share my thoughts with you about the Celestial Pullover by Figgy's.

 This was an amazingly easy pattern to put together. 2 pieces plus the cowl and the pockets (which you could omit if you wanted to throw together something really fast), but with great lines. What more could you ask for? Well the fact that Sophia LOVED it is just icing on the cake. She's already asked for a couple more and she wore it all day after I had her try it on. As she's gotten pickier with age, that is saying something.

The cowl is just perfect, not too tight around the neck, but not too loose that it looks too grown up on a 10 year old.  There is the high/low hem line that makes it look stylish (ignore the seam on my back piece--that's a result of using the dress. It had 2 side seams and then a seam at the back of the skirt part of...go figure, so I just had to make do).

But the nice thing is that with such a simple and basic pattern, you have more room to add your own personality...just look at the difference between mine and Major Mama's.

I didn't have the printing problem that Major Mama had, but I did have problems with the pockets hanging too low past the bottom hem. That could have been a result of the super stretchy knit I was using though and my daughter cramming her hands in too far.

My opinion...this pattern is definitely a 5 bolt one!

As for the layering t-shirt...I've been wanting to try this technique of making little hand warmers at the end of the sleeve for a while now. I used an old white t-shirt of mine that had gotten kind of stretched funny and just used one of Sophia's shirts as a pattern. I actually used the sleeves from the original shirt, just cutting them off where I needed as well as the bottom hem. Then I added some of the red knit on to the sleeves, following this tutorial of sorts (It's in Dutch, but that's what google translate if for, right?).

And there you have my Up-cycled look for this week at Project Run and Play.