Men's T-Shirt to Girl's Dress!
...a Man's T-Shirt into a Little Girl's Dress!
Hello everyone!
Bit later than usual for the post this week, I've been delivering the finished product to my model for a photoshoot! Then I quickly applied dye to my roots for the long awaited touch up and I'm currently sitting here with a towel round my neck and dye and toner on my hair, waiting for it to develop before I wash off!
Enough about my hair, you're reading to see how I got on with this week's make! During my daily scroll through Pinterest, I saw a cute way to make a dress from a men's shirt. What I love about this idea is how it's re-styling old clothes that may not be used anymore, or from charity shops and while we all have so much time at the moment to sort through our wardrobes, I'm sure you'll find something perfect for this project in your significant other's wardrobe (just make sure they don't notice!).
So, to do this, you'll just need a t-shirt and your sewing machine, plus any embellishments you want to add, I just used some scraps from another top I'm shortening to make a waist band.
First, cut a little over half way down the body of the top, this piece will be the skirt of the dress, so just make sure it's long enough for that. Next you'll want to cut the front neck piece, make almost a triangular shape coming out from the neckline and straight along at the bottom (it's clearer in the picture below, promise).
For the new sleeves, use the top corners on each current sleeve, including the sleeve hem and shoulder seam if your t-shirt has one. Do this on both sides.
The last piece of cutting is the top back, make the same shape around the same place you made the front panel, including the back of the neck hole, make sure it's around the same size, it doesn't need to be exact, so don't worry about it being too perfect!
So, on to the construction, and we move up into my bedroom for this part! I've recently moved my sewing desk in there as we've had a switch around in the living room and there's not room any more!
To begin the sewing together, you'll need the two halves of the neck piece. Cross the ends of each neckline over each other at almost a right angle, shown below.
Sew along each edge of the piece underneath to ensure it's attached securely. Once that's done, grab your sleeves and place them right sides together with the apex of the sleeve at the corner of the neckline.
Sew all the way along with about 1cm seam allowance, and obviously, do this on both sides. Turn the top piece inside out, and sew along the underarms and down the body of each side. To get it flattest, pull the arm so the length your sewing is almost straight, then once it's together, cut out some of the extra seam allowance to ensure it's as smooth as possible. You can also attach the sleeves by sewing the body piece together first, then inserting the sleeves afterwards, but this is how I did it.
Moving on to the skirt section, decide how you want to fit it, I used small pleats about an inch apart from each other, but you could also gather it, use box pleats, or cut the piece smaller so it sits a lot straighter. Once you've decided on your method , put right sides together and pin it in place, making sure the seams match up smoothly from one piece to the other. Then simply sew the two pieces, again, using around a 1-2cm seam allowance.
To make my waistband, I used a scrap piece of white t-shirt, almost like a binding by securing along the inside of the top, then folding it over to cover the seam and running a top stitch along the bottom edge, having folded that under.
I love how it turned out and my gorgeous little model Tilly looked adorable in it!
Before I finish the post, I just want to say thank you for all the good luck messages from you all for my new job, I'm looking forward to going back to nursing but will miss seeing you all in the shop! Don't worry though, I'll be continuing to make something every week that I can, so you'll continue to get your weekly fix of watching me potentially mess something up big time!!
Stay safe everyone, and keep sending us your quarantine makes...