Just Had To Try This...

The original shirt!

 
Last week when I went to get some clothes out of my closet  and one of my husband's shirts was hanging there in front of my clothes.  I couldn't figure out what he wanted me to do with it so I left it there to ask him about it when he got home from work.
  When I asked him he said that he was going to throw it away because the collar was worn out.  He just forgot to do it!  Instantly I had visions of a little dress tutorial I'd seen on http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-shirt-dress.html.  She had made several little dresses that were out of men's shirts and even had a tutorial on how to do it!  It was my opportunity to make something for Halle! (Since the other girls had got twirly skirts and culottes this summer.)
  So I copied off what I thought was essential (since my memory isn't what it used to be!) and began my journey on Monday.  Now Monday was also the first day of school for us so not a lot got done on the dress.  Basically, I got the collar and sleeves cut off! 

  My next step was to find a basic a-line dress to use as a rough pattern to cut the dress out.  I called Niki and got Halle's size, found a pattern and spent the evening getting everything ready for day # 2--cut the dress out and do some sewing...
  I am not a decisive person so it took me a while to get my courage up to cut it out.  I "measured twice and cut once", thought it looked really good, so I made myself a pattern to use in the future with my little special instructions written all over it.

I had looked all over the internet for different people's attempts at "refashioning" or "repurposing" a man's shirt into a little girl's dress and had seen one with these beautiful little Euro ruffles down the front.  That took care of the rest of Tuesday's spare minutes.  I was playing with ruffles for the front of the dress.  After all, if we're going to go on a "design and create" tangent let's go all the way with it and have some fun!

Then I decided we needed another fabric in with the shirt fabric--enter new ruffles to go between the ones out of the shirt fabric.  And then I decided it should probably go on the edge of the sleeves and the tail of the hem.   Somewhere years ago I read a second color of design should always be added by odd numbers.  (put it in one,three or five places but not in two or four.)

On to the next stage...

Since Niki had sent me Halle's measurements I was now ready to add elastic to the neckline and to the sleeves.  That was Wednesday.  My husband made the comment that he didn't know how a quick little thing like making a man's shirt into a dress could be taking all week.  Of course it can--when half the time you're designing and playing and then you sew for 10 minutes between helping with school work!  And we had to have our exercise time, game night (Pictionary), and just plain being silly together!

  Today I was determined to bring my fun to an end--after all, someone has got to stop and do some cleaning around here this week!  So here's the grand finale.  I'm very pleased with it and look forward to having a picture of Halle modeling her Grandpa Gary's shirt turned into the cutest little shirt dress!  So here it is!

  A big thank you to Dana for putting such a wonderful and easily understood tutorial on her blog.  It was a slightly bigger project than I excpected (due to my wanting to stick little ideas of my own here and there) but I loved the cost-$0.00!  Now that makes me want to go to the nearest thrift store and find my next project!

  If anyone else does something like this I'd sure like to hear about it and find out where you learned about it and what you did!

Love,

Mom