So far, I’ve made these two dresses from old shirts I had. They are definitely not perfect, but Abs likes them, so I guess that’s what matters.
This was a super simple project. Can’t believe I didn’t make one sooner. Here’s a tutorial for you:
Lay a dress or shirt of your toddler’s on top of the shirt you’re going to cut. Make sure the necklines match up and fold the sleeves in on the toddler shirt.
Draw around the top item with disappearing ink pen, and then, cut around the lines.
Cut around the neckline.
Then cut the back side of the dress to be closer to the neckline- Sew up the sides with a straight stitch and then a zigzag stitch.
- Then sew around the arm holes and stitch the back part, too.
- Then, cut the neckline in the middle on the back part (where the tag used to be), and sew the ends onto the back of the dress, to make spaghetti straps.
You’re done, unless you want to embellish more. The first one, I decided to make some flowers with the left over fabric. (I was a little worried that the flowers wouldn’t hold up in the wash, but they stayed perfectly intact!)
For the second dress, I made ruffles. I’ve cut out 4 other shirts, but I haven’t gotten around to sewing them into dresses, yet. Any ideas for other ways to dress up the dresses??
Oh, I learned from making the first one that I should’ve make the bottom part of the dress more like an A-line.
I also made these bows to match the dress themes:
Let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any questions.
Related posts:
- How to Make: Baby Legwarmers (Tutorial)
- Inexpensive Wall Art for Baby (Tutorial)
- Private: 10 Tips to Prepare Toddler for New Baby
- How to Make Baby Burp Cloths
If you like this articles, share it with your friend! Digg it StumbleUpon Facebook Twitter del.icio.us Google Yahoo! Reddit
I have to make one of these for Graysen.
@Emily- YES! And the great thing about it is that if you happen to mess up, it won’t matter much because it’s a free project! Those are the best!
Hi Lori,
Just thought I’d let you know I tried to do a write up of how to make the apron in the comments. Let me know if you have questions. And I’ll take pictures next time!
Your blog is great and so is this shirt dress tutorial! Thanks for stopping by ours
http://amylenn.blogspot.com/2010/08/strawberry-cloth.html
@AmyLenn- Thanks for visiting my blog to let me know you responded. And thank you for taking the time to write out instructions!
Great work!! I love the orange – such a nice warm, happy color.
@Melissa- Thanks! I enjoyed looking at your dresses, too.
Hey there! Thanks for stopping by Jumping Jack! You are right – I do have ties to LBK! I graduated from Tech in 2003. I miss LBK terribly! Wreck ‘em TECH!
BTW -the t-shirt dress is super cute!
@Jumping Jack- You’re welcome. And thanks for stopping by here, too.
A very nice concept indeed of utilizing the old dresses. The costs of kids wear is definitely skyrocketing these days. It’ll surely help to save some hard earned money.
@ Ruby- Thanks for your comment. I’m making another dress today, in fact.
Hey, you are quick to reply! Just wanted to say hi. I e-mailed a link of this to my aunt. She loves stuff like this! You are so creative! Love it. Are you all in Lubbock still? We’ll be around in Dec/Jan. Love to see you. Your kids are soo big and so adorable. ANyway, peace to you all!
@Lucy- Well thanks. Yeah, I saw your husband from a distance today, I think??
Wow, wonderful blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is wonderful, as well as the content!