About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 1h30

Re-fashioned, Dress, T-shirt
Got some shirts that you cant wear due to stains, rips etc? Don't throw them out! Refashion! This is the best way to practice your sewing skills, if you mess up, no big deal, you were going to get rid of the shirts anyway!

Posted by Carolina D. • Published 2nd September 2010

Print • Embed

shari.martin2 added Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! to dresses 26 Jan 21:03
veronica f. favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 24 Feb 21:14
Ghost C. favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 22 Jan 23:41
Clairvoyant favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 10 Jun 08:06
yhorak favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 16 Mar 14:39
cameron.may.520 favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 04 Jul 03:20
phoenixonfyre favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 26 Jun 08:13
Irene Wildfox added Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! to Clothing 09 Jun 13:40
Ari M. favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 19 Feb 00:48
alpha.omega favorited Dont Throw Those Shirts Away! Make A Dress!! 26 Jan 21:08

Step 1
I really like this dress that SJP wore in Sex in the City 2. I really like the shape of the top, but would really like a more fitted bottom part. I dug through my pile of donated shirts and recreated my version of this dress.
Step 2
I took three shirts, now depending on your size and what fit you want, you may want to go bigger or smaller in size. I'm a curvy size 6 bottom and medium top in women’s sizes (large in juniors).

What I used...

1 Fitted top with sleeves (grey, for sleeves and detail)
1 Large men’s shirt (black, for the top)
1 Medium men’s shirt (maroon, for the skirt)
Pins
Scissors
Measuring tool
Sewing tools

Make sure you have shirts inside out before you start cutting and sewing!
Step 3
Lets start with the dress top first. For a loose fit I took the men's large shirt and put it on. Measure about an inch or two below the bust and mark with pin.
Step 4
Cut below where you marked with the pin.
Step 5
Cut off the collar,depending on your taste you can do a V shaped, I chose to do a scoop.
Step 6
Cut off the sleeves. and set aside dress top.
Step 7
Take fitted shirt with sleeves and cut off the sleeves.
Step 8
Attach sleeves from the fitted top and add to dress top. Because dress top is looser than the fitted top, you will need to pleat dress top either when you are adding pins or during sewing.
Step 9
Once you have pinned sleeves to dress top should look like this.
Step 10
I chose to pleat while I sew, when sewing pleats, it should look like this folding over fabric little by little. Once you are finished sewing sleeves on set aside.
Step 11
Go back to the fitted top and cut the shirt so that you can lay it flat as one piece. I cut along one of the side seams and the top of the shirt.
Step 12
Measure an inch or two below the bust, the same area you pinned/marked for the dress top. This is similar to an empire waist. Use this measurement and cut the length from the fitted shirt,width of 3 inches. You should add on a bit of length because you need to sew the ends together.
Step 13
After the ends are sewed together, pin to the dress top, matching the seams together. Again you will need to pleat either when you pin together or during sewing
Step 14
You have now created the top of your dress.
Step 15
Take the shirt that you will use as the bottom of your dress. Again I used a men's size medium for a more fitted look, for a looser fit I suggest using an XL.

Cut off the top of shirt and sleeves.
Step 16
When I was cutting the shirt, I noticed that there was a defect on the shirt and it wasn’t sewn correctly (was really off!) so I cut along the side seams of the shirt to match up the fabric. You can skip this step, but incase you come along the same problem I suggest to do this.
Step 17
Place bottom of dress below the top of the dress to help get an idea of how you want the bottom to look. If you have a friend around, have them help you pin the bottom of the dress together. I pinned the top part of the bottom of the dress and put it on and pinned away. If you are going for the looser look, pin the pieces together at diagonals, think A-Line. Sew and cut off excess fabric. I Also trimmed off the bottom since the shirt length was still not equal.
Step 18
Once the bottom part of the dress is is completed, pin together to the bottom of the dress top and sew.
Step 19
Ta-dah! You made a dress!