I think the term for what I did to this dress would be "upcycle," but I think "embellished" would work also. I found two cheap dresses on clearance at Target. This one is orange with a pink ruffle on the bottom and pink straps, the other is blue with green. They were cheap - super cheap, I want to say $3 a piece. I knew before I bought them that I wanted to add some pockets or some sort of applique to them. After I bought the dresses, I took them to JoAnn and matched them up with fat quarters.
Since Lauren has been into pockets lately (especially for the ability to carry around her little tiny princesses), I decided to go with a little function in the fashion.
The top heart isn't a pocket, it is just sewn on and I added three mismatched but kind of coordinating buttons in a row on it. The bottom middle heart is actually two pockets. I sewed a seam straight down the middle and left the rounded parts of the heart open. The two pockets on the side are also hearts, the top open to make the pockets.
And the dress was a hit. She put it on as soon as I finished it and went out to play and we went out to dinner with her wearing it.
The only bad news I have about this dress is how much it has inspired me to use buttons from Lissa's stash in upcoming projects. I must have laid out a dozen different setups for the buttons before I decided to go with the simple three button design I used.
I also hit up Hobby Lobby on Tuesday and picked up four patterns, taking advantage of this week's 99 cent special. I may wait until we get up to Washington, but I may not. I just need to find a fabric store that sells better fabric for apparel. I'd like some better knits instead of the stiffer cotton that I've been using.