Attaching a skirt to a shirt makes a dress

Thank you to A Small Snippet for inspiring me.

I loved this shirt, but it is too short, and it shows my kangaroo pouch.  Even though I love it, I haven't worn it since I got the kangaroo pouch. (Love the kids, but there were definitely sacrifices made to have them. :))

So I found some fabric that matched it, and made me a dress out of it.  It took about an hour.

In the original tutorial, she used elastic thread to gather the fabric, and a sash to cover where the shirt attaches to the skirt.  I had just got some fantastic colored elastic and thought perhaps I could try that instead.

In my experience, elastic thread can be so unpredictable in the final width, while if I used an elastic, I could measure out exactly how wide I wanted my skirt to end up.

I described how to attach a skirt to an exposed elastic in the last post.  Takes lots of pinning, but it's worth it.



First things first.
1.  Measure how wide you want the elastic to be.  I planned to have the skirt meet the shirt below my bustline, so I measured that width, plus a half inch for seam allowance and any day I might feel more bloated than I do today.

2.  Divide and pin the skirt and elastic (as shown here).  Then stretch the elastic as you sew them together so that it is as long as the fabric.  Ends up looking like this.

3.  Cut off the shirt where you want it to attach to the skirt (plus a quarter inch for the seam).

4.  Divide and pin the shirt and elastic the same way you did the skirt and elastic.  They should be about the same size, so there won't be as much stretching when you sew them together.

This is where I used a serger, because I wanted this seam to have some stretch.  The knit was stretchy and so is the elastic.  I imagine there's another way to make this a stretchy seam, but I couldn't tell you.  Sorry.

It ends up looking like this.  Perhaps I will iron it, so that the elastic shows more.



The last thing to do was to hem the skirt.  I would have liked to make it a maxi, as my inspiration did, but I didn't quite have enough fabric, so it ends up somewhere below my knees.  Perhaps if I don't like it enough, I'll put a ruffle on it.  But for now, it's lightweight, (which is necessary with the current weather) and full enough to run after any stray toddlers. AND it took an hour.  Faster than shopping.  I'll take it!

Tiered Maxi Dress

I wanted a dress that was cool enough for the summer, but long enough that I don't have to worry about whether I'd shaved my legs that day.  Enter the tiered maxi dress.

This was made from four xtra large men's shirts that I happened to have.

For the top shirt, I placed a t-shirt that fits me well on top of the men's shirt and traced down from the shoulder seam, through the arms eyes and a few inches beyond.

Then I cut it out.  I cut out the sleeves and traced my t shirt sleeves on top, keeping the hem of the existing sleeves.  Then I sewed the sleeves back in and down the side.

Originally, the top part was going to end below the bustline--like an empire waist.  But I sewed it a little too tight, so I cut it off above the bust.

Then I cut up the remaining shirts into as wide a strips and I could get them.  I figured how long I'd need each tier to be by timesing the upper tier by 1.5.


Then it was just a matter of gathering the current tier and sewing it onto the tier above it.  I made certain that I had the hem from the t shirt for my bottom tier so I wouldn't have to hem it.

I love how the dress doesn't touch me below the bustline.  Super Comfy.

This just might come in handy, if I were to gain a little weight around the waist....

Blue Knit shirt to dress

I don't have any during pictures for this.

So I'll just have to explain.  I took a soft knit shirt, cut it off at the neckline and cut off the sleeves.  I sewed up the holes left from the sleeves and there I had a tube for the main part of the dress.

I took the leftover fabric and sewed it into a tube that was about an inch less wide than my dress-tube.  Then I sewed it to the top of the dress tube, stretching it to fit as I sewed.

Last of all, I took the ribbing from the neck of the shirt and cut it up to make straps.  Beautiful color, soft and comfy.  Perfect for the coming warm season.  (Or a cold day, as this day was.)

T-shirt Dress

I found some bright and colorful t-shirts at the dollar store, and knew that my girls would be wearing t-shirt dresses for Easter.

I've been using the t-shirt pattern I made for the pajamas a lot. (Click here to see how that works.)

So after tracing the pattern on the t-shirt, I angled it from the arms eye to the bottom. ( I actually didn't take the line all the way to the bottom at first and there was an interesting bump where I ended my seam, so I went back and took it all the way down.)

That way, I kept the original hem, neckline and shoulder seam. (I still haven't mastered how to sew those things on knits without stretching them.)

I cut the sleeves to a much shorter length by measuring two inches from the original line.

Then I fit the sleeves into the arm's eye, right sides together.

As you can see, the sleeve was much too wide, so I sewed my widest stitch possible from three inches above the armpit seam around to three inches above it on the other side, leaving a lot of extra thread on both sides to pull when I gathered it.

With the bottom and top of the sleeve pinned in place, I pulled the thread on each side until the sleeve fit the hole.

Then I sewed the sleeve in place.

Came out looking like this.

I'm still not completely happy with my pattern.  It feels like the arm holes are too wide still.  I'll have to tweak it some more.






Xena is much smaller than Kewpie, and when I tried the initial t-shirt on her, I knew I'd have to do much more with the neck to make it seem less like it drowned her.

I took a seam ripper and cut along the inside of the neck ribbing.


Then I folded it over further and sewed it down, trimming the excess ribbing off after I sewed it.


If I hadn't been so lazy, I would have switched to matching thread, and it would have looked better.

Xena immediately got dirt all over her dress, before I could even get a picture of her.


I should have taken one anyway, but my mother-in-law did, and someday I'll get those photos from her and update this.

Kewpie loves this dress most of all, because it's the same color as her best friend, Duck.  

She even insisted that we take pictures of it, posed for me very cooperatively.  Note to self, if you make clothes they like, they'll let you take pictures of them.

The first dress took about 30 minutes to make.  I love me a quick project that turns out cute!

Orange you glad it's a dress?

Before we move into Christmas, I should share the Autumn dress I made for Xena Warrior Princess.

I took an existing shirt of a similar style, folded it in half, stretched it out and traced it onto paper.  After I cut it out it looked like this:

One side goes on the fold and I cut out four (so that, unfolded it makes two sides and two sleeves.



I sewed the sides together, sewed the sleeves on, and then made a casing for the elastic in the top.




I discovered at that moment that it was too short, so I made a ruffle.  Isn't everything better with a ruffle?


After hemming it, I felt like it needed something else, so I lined the bottom ruffle and sleeves with some orange ribbon.  Much better.

Xena wore it under an orange tutu with a pumpkin hat for Halloween.  The pumpkin hat idea I got from Delia at Delia Creates.

Please excuse this photo.  It's never easy to get a good shot of Xena Warrior Princess, because she's always moving.

Such an easy dress!  I love it!

NOTES FOR NEXT TIME:
The sleeve should be a little wider where the arm comes out if you want to gather it.
Take a chest measurement and apply it to the pattern with enough room to get in and out of the dress.  This one was cute, but Xena has to step into it to get it on, and Xena doesn't do that as well as over the head.