From a Dress to a Sport Bra | Upcycling process

My mom was going to get rid of this dress 🤯

Unfitting old dress

It was in such perfect condition but it didn't fit her anymore or me... But I really liked the fabric. I'm a big fan of flower motives!

As a person actively trying to participate in the Slow Fashion movement. I decided we wouldn't just get rid of it. We would reuse it by turning it into something else, new, more practical, and fitting!

The fabric was just so good, super thick and strong! So I thought it would be the perfect fabric for a sports bra ✨

I, then, disassembled the dress and decided I would try to use just the fabric from the sleeves to make the bra and keep the rest of the fabric to make something else later.

I had never made a bra before, so I picked up one that I really liked the shape of to use for the pattern.

Bra pattern

Because I was making a sports bra, I wanted it to be a little bit bigger than just a regular bra, so I used the outline from outside the lace.

I folded it and the fabric in half and then I made the first mistake 😅

I aligned the straight part of the bra with the folded edge of the fabric. That forced me to make the seam in the upper half of the bra instead of the lower as it is in the black one.

Bra seams

I think it doesn't matter too much though because in the end because it still fits perfectly 🤩

It was really fun making this bra. And it was also very interesting working with elastic fabric and learning what was the proper way to sew on stockinette fabric (which is zigzag stitches 😉)

Luckily I had enough fabric to make two layers for the back part and I added 3 hooks so the bra will be stronger.

It still doesn't look perfect because it bends out and that is annoying 🤦‍♀️ But it works and it is strong enough for sport!

Back part of the sport bra

I would also like to add that for the straps I used some heat-activated adhesive so I didn't have to sew and risk the thread would break from stretching.

And also that the straps will probably be too short because I didn't have any more fabric left from the sleeves so I will probably have to think of something to enlarge them 😅

And after all this talk, this is the final result and the before and after from a dress' sleeves to a sports bra!

Upcycled dress turned into a sport bra

If you got to the end of this post,

thank you ✨