Corduroy Shirt Dress

To make this dress, I started with a men's XXL corduroy shirt, and and men's L sweater.

Cut away the shirt collar, leaving the neck band.

Use part of the collar to create an extension for the future sweater collar.  The buttonhole on the collar tip will come in handy.  Be careful not to stitch over the existing buttonholes, you will use them.

Cut away the sleeves.

Carefully pick out the side seam stitching of the sweater (which should give you edges that don't unravel.)  Cut 5 1/2" off the bottom edge of the sweater front.  This will give you a collar piece that is finished on three sides.  Serge the unfinished cut edge. 

Pin the right side of the collar to the wrong side of the collar band and extension, easing if necessary.  Stitch in place.

Button up the collar band and mark where the button should be placed for the collar extension.  Since the fabric is kind of thick, sewing the button over a pin, and then removing the pin, will make it easier to button through the thickness.

Fit the shirt to your size and take in the side seams.  Cut your new sleeves from the bottom of the original sleeves, retaining the cuff detail.  I opted for a straight edge, dropped sleeve so that I didn't have to mess with cutting the upper curve to a new sleeve.  Stitch the sleeve in place.

Cut about 9" from the bottom of the sweater sleeves and take in seams as needed to fit.  Serge the unfinished edge.  Place the sweater sleeve into the dress sleeve, matching side seams.  Pin and stitch in place.  I left the shirt cuff unbuttoned to give me more ease in wearing.  You may have to hand stitch the sweater sleeve in place.

Square off the front and back tail of the shirt.  Retain these scrap pieces incase a waist inset is needed for added length.

  

Open the side seams of the leftover upper sleeve pieces.  You can do this by unpicking the stitching, or in my case, they were flat felled seams and I just cut close to the edge.  Overlap the sleeves and stitch in place.  Since I cut close to the flat felled seam, I didn't have to finish the slit edge.  If you have a raw edge, finish it before overlapping and stitching.  This will become the back slit of your dress. 

  

Square off the top edge of the upper sleeve pieces, pin and stitch this bottom band to the dress.  (As a side note, I stitched down the back pleat of the shirt before adding the bottom band.  I also duplicated the front plaque detail with buttonholes as you can see from the second picture.)

Front plaque detail of bottom band, with added buttonhole, made to match original plaque detail.

The dress wasn't quite long enough for me, so to get some extra length I added an inset waist piece, turning the front edges to the inside.

  

Stitch elastic to each seam, stretching the elastic as you go.

When complete, the inside should look like this.  Add a button and buttonhole to the waist.  (I had to piece together various scrap pieces to create the waist inset.  But, I didn't worry too much since it would be covered by a belt.)  All that was left was to hem it with a simple rolled hem.

So there you have it, a corduroy shirt dress!  You can view the tutorial of the sweater purse here.

Pretty in Pink

Step-by-step on how to turn a pajama jumpsuit into a cute and comfy dress.

  

I began with cutting at the waist to eliminate the dropped waist and gathers.  

Next step was to cut my sleeves from the pant legs, taking advantage of the existing hem to be used for the hem of my sleeves.  I used a sleeve pattern to get an idea of the curve I needed.  I also measured the sleeve opening on the bodice to make sure the new sleeve would fit.  I cut the sleeve a little bigger than the bodice sleeve opening so that I would have some ease at the top of the sleeve. Once cut, I ran a gathering stitch along the top of the sleeve and gathered it slightly.  I pinned the sleeve to the bodice opening and stitched it in place.  

I wanted the sleeves to be a little more fitted, so I made a small cut on the backside of the existing hem.  I then threaded some small elastic through and secured the ends.

Now it was time to turn my attention to the skirt of the dress.  After cutting apart the inseam and crotch area, I laid the piece flat (right sides together and original side seams on top of each other.)  I then squared-up and cut off the top edge.  Note: Even by cutting off the top edge, there were still a few buttons/buttonholes at the front.  This is essential in order to get your dress on and off!

The front and back crotch areas were squared-up, stitched, and cut off.  At this point you could also square-up and cut off the bottom edge.

On second thought, I wanted a slit in the back, so instead of a small serged seam in the back, I cut it away and stitched a new one.  This time, I serged both edges and then stitched a 5/8" seam.  I didn't stitch it all the way to the end so that I could leave an opening for a back slit.

Press the back seam open.

Next, the bodice and skirt went onto the dress form for fitting.  I pinned the side seams.

I also pinned darts in the front and the back.

Stitch the side seams.

Stitch the darts and press.

 Sorry, the rest of the tutorial is picture-free, but its just a matter of pinning and stitching the skirt to the bodice and hemming the skirt.  The sash was cut 8 12" wide (by what ever length you want it to be), folded in half, stitched, turned, and pressed.  

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you have fun with your next refashion!

Pillowcases and Blouse Dress

Start with a blouse and two pillowcases.

 Try on your blouse and determine where your waistline is.  Make a cut 1" below your waistline to allow for the casing.

Cut your pillowcase seams apart along the side and the top.  Determine how long you want your finished dress to be and add 1" extra for the casing.  Cut away the excess.  Lay your pillowcases right sides together and stitch up each side seam.

Your pillow cases are probably wider than the blouse.  Run two rows of basting along the top edge of the pillowcases.  One at 1" and the other at 1/4".  Gather up the basting until it is the same width as the blouse.

Place the gathered pillowcases and blouse, right sides together, and stitch along the 1" basting line.

Trim away the excess blouse material from the casing to eliminate any unnecessary bulk.

Fold the gathered seam upwards towards the blouse and stitch in place along the 1/4" basting line.  Be sure to leave an opening for the elastic to thread through.

Thread your elastic through.  Adjust to the right size.  Cut and secure the elastic.  Stitch the opening closed.

At this point, your dress is done.  I wanted to make the neckline more modest so I ruffled the extra blouse fabric and stitched it to each side of the neckline.

I also wanted a matching belt.  Sorry, no photos (it was an afterthought!)  I used two layers of heavyweight iron-on interfacing to give it shape.  It is secured with velcro.  The flower was made by ripping 1 1/2" strips of fabric, gathering them down the middle, then sewing them in a circular pattern onto a circular base of fabric.  (I strengthened the base with two layers of interfacing also.)  I started sewing around the outside edge and worked my way to the middle, keeping the rows very close together.  I topped it off with vintage earring hot-glued to the middle.

Good Luck!

Blue T-Shirt Dress

This blue dress was so simple on account of the working button detail on the shoulder.  This allowed me to make the neckline smaller with pleats and still be able to get the dress on and off by just unbuttoning one shoulder seam.

Supplies Needed:

Woman's t-shirt

scissors

tape measure

pins, needle and thread

sewing machine

child's dress, t-shirt, or pattern to be used as a guide

decorative button (optional)

Begin with a t-shirt that has buttons already at the shoulder.  If you don't have a t-shirt with this detail, you can still make the dress, but you will need to follow the back neckline detail of the pink dress in order to get the dress on and off.

Before I began, I decided I liked the overcast stitch detail on the t-shirt and I wanted to incorporate it into the design.  I cut off about 3" from the bottom of the t-shirt and the sleeves to be used later for a ruffle.

Cut away the sleeves, allowing enough excess fabric to be able to turn it under and topstitch.  I did this so that I could take advantage of the overcast stitch detail.

Figure how big you want the armhole openings to be (you might look at an existing t-shirt, dress, or child's pattern to get an idea.)  Cut the sides of the t-shirt starting at the armholes and continuing to the bottom edge of the t-shirt so that your overall width is the size you want.  Be sure to allow for a seam allowance.  I also needed to cut a bit off the length and did so at this point.

  

It's time to start construction.  I placed a pin at the center of the front neckline.  Then I placed three more pins to each side of the center pin at 1" intervals.  Repeat on the back neckline.

Starting with the pin to the right of the center, fold the neckline at the pin and bring the fold to the center.  Pin in place.

   Make a fold at the furthest pin and bring it toward the center to the next nearest pin.  Pin in place.

Repeat on the left side.

You should now have four pleats pinned in place.  Repeat the same process on the back neckline.  Stitch in place.

Turn the dress right sides together and stitch the side seams.

Serge or finish the edges of the armhole openings.

Fold the excess fabric to the back of the armhole opening and topstitch in place.

Stitch the ruffle pieces together (the pieces you cut from the bottom edge of the t-shirt and the bottom of the sleeves.)

Gather the ruffle, pin to the bottom edge of the dress and stitch in place.

And that's all there is to it!  Oh, except for a little button detail in the front, if you desire!

Click HERE to return to the original post of the dress.