I Did One

I'm kind of embarrassed to even post these pictures, our camera is dying, our apartment is dark (and messy as you can see) and my child won't hold still, but I did the project in the right month, so I'm posting it! The neckline help post was a huge help for me, I didn't shed any tears or say any bad words. I think I'm going to take the hem up a few inches, but she was so excited to wear it I decided to wait, and now it has strawberry ice cream down the front. :) My daughter is quite slight through the shoulders, so I think next time I'll make the neck area a little bit smaller, I also should have put less elastic in the sleeves because they are pretty big. I thought this was really fun and I'm very happy I know how to make this dress now, my daughter only wants to wear dresses, so this will be helpful.

My Shirt Dress

My husband has had this shirt for years, but never wears it because the fit is weird. This made it perfect for the Shirt Dress. Because the print was so masculine I paired it with a femmy aqua polka dot fabric.

I also had major problems with the neck/sleeves. I started this for my 4 year old and we could not get it over her head. So I ended up re-cutting it and making it for my 2 year old, Evangeline (seen below).

I will definitely try this again, but might take a cue from Kelli and cut the top straight across and then add straps. I am also going to raise the belt a bit more so it creates an empire waist.

I still LOVE the outcome of this one. I'm giving you two photo options....


Shirt Dress: Happy

and Shirt Dress: Cranky

Those red-heads are a feisty group.
Thanks for the fun pattern!
I can't wait to experiment more!
.

Another dress.

I finally finished this little dress this morning in time for my daughter to wear it to church. She was very excited. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I think its a little snug in the sleeve area but that's something I could easily adjust next time around. I think this is one of those projects that you just have to get through the first one and work out all the kinks. The next one will most likely be a bit easier. I love the tip about double-stitching the hem. It makes such a big difference and I will be adding that to all my clothing projects!

I used an old shirt of my husband's that he got a thrift store in New Zealand. It took a little convincing to get him to let me use it. He hadn't worn it in a while and the sleeve and a large tear in it, so I thought I would put it to better use. It looks like it has blue in it but it is actually just a faded black so that is why I did a black waistband. I think she looks like a little country girl on the farm. This was my first project with the blog and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Shirt Dress Finished

I finally finished my first shirtdress. I had some trouble with the neckline and sleeves (I think because I didn't have a serger or a model to try it on) so I finally just chopped the top off and made it a spaghetti strap dress. I added some ruffles to the bodice front and the pocket to the skirt.

I have no idea if it will actually fit a real child, but I am happy with the way it looks on a hanger.

blue pinstripe dress

Hi PresserFoot fans! I joined the PF circle last month and this is my first completed sew-along project. I loved the tutorial (so many great photos and good instructions) and had fun turning my hubby's shirt into this little dress.

I had intended to make a dress for my 5 year old daughter Anna, but there wasn't enough fabric width wise to do that (but she's that girly in the shirt's before pic not the actual recipient of the dress). It ended up being for my 3 1/y year old daughter, Emily. She generally wears size 4T and that's about what I think this dress size is. I enlarged the suggested pattern measurements by adding 1 1/2 inches all around. I think next time I need to add more space to the underarm area though because that spot is snug on her.

I also added a little ruffle to the bottom of the dress with some additional scraps I had after making the wasteband. If I had some of those cool fabric button cover thingys I would have made buttons with the dark blue scraps, too. Next time maybe.

I love the whole recycle/upcycle idea of turning unused shirts into darling dresses. I definitely see more of these in my girls' futures. Happy sewing! - Leslie

Miss 4th of July

I finished my first shirt dress!!! This one was a real struggle for me. Lots of seam ripping. Not because the idea or tutorial aren't great, but I had to re-figure everything for an 80% four year old. There are only a few scraps left of the original shirt. I also cut the sleeves wrong, but didn't have any fabric left to re-cut them. I should have gone sleeveless, but sewed, seam ripped, sewed, seam ripped and sewed again. I did however make all of the necessary adjustments to my freezer paper pattern, so I expect dress #2 will be a snap. I'll let you know. In the end I am pleased with the result and am feeling a little Betsy Ross coming on.

white summer linen

My dress is finished! And it was the perfect wardrobe for our afternoon outing.
I started with a men's white linen shirt, mixed up the original dress pattern a bit, and added new buttons.For more info and details, please hop over to MADE. Can't wait to see what you all come up with! We still have 1/2 a month left. Maybe I have one more up my sleeve....?

The Shirt Dress: the Pattern

I'm glad to see that many of you have jumped on board, to sew-along. Great fun!

In the last post's comments, it was mentioned that this could be made in a woman's size. Absolutely! Though, it would be more of a shirt rather than a dress. For some great tips and ideas on how to do that, check out clevergirl.org. She offers some very creative takes on men's-shirt to women's-shirt transformations.
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Okay, now that you've found a men's dress shirt to work with, let's get down to business. I won't go over all the steps here, as they are detailed in the tutorial HERE. But I will highlight a few things.

The Pattern
I don't sew with store-bought patterns. I can and have, but I often find that you can recreate many ideas by using an item of clothing you already have. This is how I came up with the pattern here. I took one of my daughter's dresses and mimicked the idea by pulling each dress piece straight (since there was elastic inside) and tracing it onto fabric, to create my own new pattern. This is how I sew most things: pants for my little guy, shirts, etc. You can do this too. It's not hard, just takes some practice and fiddling with. If you have a pattern or dress you love, go with that! Or you can follow this pattern here.
(click on the picture to see in better detail)

PLEASE NOTE: These measurements are for a skinny 2-3 year old. If your child is average size or a little larger, you must extend the areas mentioned below. If you're stuck or not sure how large to make it, measure your child and use those measurements as a guideline. If you're really unsure....make it larger, rather than smaller. You can then try it on and take in the side seams and shoulders if needed.
Or you can always cut out a mock version on junk fabric, sew a few steps, and try it on to see if you're on the right track.

Here are the two pattern pieces you'll need. You will cut out two of each, following the instructions on the tutorial. I hope these images make sense. None of the measurements are set in stone and should be adjusted to fit your child. But these should serve as a guideline.
If you have questions, please leave them here in the comments. Good luck!
- dana

The Shirt Dress: Picking the right shirt

Hello fellow Presser Footers. I'm thrilled to be with you this week! And a huge thank you to Kelli and Rian for inviting me.

As Kelli mentioned, this month we will be making The Shirt Dress, which is a girl's summer dress made from a man's dress shirt. The goal is something like this (with your own twist, of course):
And you can find the very step-by-step tutorial HERE.

The Shirt Dress project is one of my favorites because:
* it's simple to make
* the possibilities are endless
* it fits in the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle category (and that's something we can all appreciate)

So if you're ready to dive-in, here are some tips for picking the right shirt to use....

1. There's never a right or wrong shirt. You can use almost any shirt and make it work by adding your own twist and cute coordinating fabric as the waistband. What I'm trying to say is: think outside of the box. A manly looking print can end up looking real cute on this girlish-styled dress.

2. Raid your husband's closet first, sifting through shirts that don't fit him well or shirts you're just sick of. Ask his permission of course to use any of them.
For my first shirt dress I went with this shirt that was super baggy on my man. I never let him wear it because I hated how it looked. He, of course, was thrilled with the transformation:
3. Run to your local Thrift Store and check out their selection. I often find myself at Goodwill because it's closest to me. But I find their prices a little high: $5.50 for a long-sleeve men's shirt. I was hoping for 2 bucks! But hey, $5.50 is still a great price for an adorable little dress that you, yourself have created.
I often sift through all the shirts, grabbing any that I find immediately appealing. I also search the women's shirt rack (though these don't always have enough fabric) and the children's rack (if you want to make an Infant sized dress, you can use boy's dress shirt). Any size men's shirt will work, but the larger the better because then you have more fabric to work with.
After scouring all the racks I end up with a stack of shirts and from there, I narrow it down to the few shirts I love the most. It's easy to get carried away and overby at a thrift store. So I try to stick what I really think I will use and sew with.

4. Don't worry about pockets. These can easily be removed with a seam ripper (do this carefully though! I've torn holes in my shirt by going too quickly). Save the pockets for a future project or add them to the bottom of your dress!

5. Decide how you want your sleeves to look. You can make them traditional (capped, as in the tutorial), puffed like these:
Or leave them sleeveless. If you choose to do puffed sleeves you will need a long-sleeve shirt since you will be using the cuff of the sleeve. For other styles, you can use a short-sleeve shirt since there's enough fabric there.

6. Choose fabric for your waistband. You need very little fabric for this portion, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of a yard. Find something that makes your dress pop! (or tones it down if you have a loud print). I often use scraps that are in my fabric stash. But when I have a specific color scheme in mind, I run to the store (prewash your fabric before sewing). Of course the waist band is totally optional too. Or you can make a removable one as shown here.
The waistband fabric is a great way to give it a girly twist. Your shirt may be black or brown with stripes (very manish) but mixing it with a hot pink or polka dot print waistband can make it feminine. Like I said, the possibilities are endless!

And just to give you give you more inspiration, you'll find a fashion show of what others have done here.

I'll be posting more tips as the week goes on. If anyone has questions or if you get stuck, post questions here, leave it in the comments, or send me an email (danawillard@gmail.com) and I'll incorporate that in the next blog post.

I can't wait to get started with you all! Here's what I'll be working on. Purchased at Goodwill; Beautiful white linen:

May's project : the Shirt Dress by Dana

So this month we are going to use the tutorial by the ever talented Dana (our guest blogger this month) on how to make a little girl's dress with a men's dress shirt.
I feel like this is especially pertinent because we just had earth day. It's a great chance to reuse an old shirt from your husband's closet or a thrift store. I hope everyone will participate (even if you are like me and don't have a little girl - this will make a great gift).

That's all for now. I will let Dana take it from here.

p.s. I think Dana's photos of her little girl in the dress are adorable.

A little dress and updates

So I've got the kind of body type that doesn't do well in a peasant style shirt. I was just going to skip this project all together, but started feeling left out. So, instead of making one for me i made one for my daughter. I used the Simplicity pattern 3513, which is almost exactly the same as the peasant top we did, only smaller and longer. I followed your lead and replaced the front gathers for pleats and of course I did a little embellishing with the added flower too. I don't own a Bedazzler but that surprises even me. I just think everything looks better with a little bling or accessorizing. So, if you are like me and realize that some project doesn't suit you, we invite you to improvise.

Kelli and I are constantly trying to figure out exactly what we are doing and what is the best way to go about it. Thanks for riding the learning curve with us! In order to simplify a little we are going to launch a new project on the first of each month. That way if you need to skip a project you'll know when to check back in. It also gives a little extra time for us to finish a project and have a dead line. If however you don't get your project done at the end of the month PLEASE keep going on it and post when you do finish or up load your pictures to the Flickr group.

There are likely to be more little changes to how we run things, but the basic premise never changes...We love to create new things through sewing and want to share that love with you! Happy seam ripping!