Breathing Girly Life Into a Boring Tee

I felt like sewing something today, and since PJ is refusing to wear anything but dresses, a dress seemed like the right way to go.

Frugal momma that I am, I started with a 30 cent t-shirt (Halloween clearance at JoAnn) that I had attempted at one time to make into a fitted women's tee. It was..well, ugly, so I decided to try to give it new life as a toddler dress. I've had my eye on this cute, cute tutorial for a while and used it to get me going on the project.

Using a dress of PJ's to get the approximate shape and length, I cut up the shirt into a dress-ish shape.

I sewed up the sides with a straight stitch and finished the bottom hem with a rather uneven simple hem. The sleeves are unfinished (it's a rustic look. or punk. or lazy. or how about casual?).

{Somewhere around this time, Ava waltzed in and decided SHE wanted a dress, too. Fortunately I had another bargain JoAnn tee in a lovely purpley shade. More on that below.}

Now, I already had these little slits cut into the orange shirt from its failed existence as a woman's fitted tee, so I had to use them somehow. I decided to take strips of fabric from another tee and tie little bows through the slits.

I think it turned out pretty cute (but I think Ava's turned out even cuter).

For hers, I assembled it the same way, but I went with the ruffles, following the directions on the Oh So Happy Together tutorial. The ruffles were a little tricky to sew, but it's okay if they get messy. They still look cute. I nixed the green strips below, but I may have to do a white dress with a rainbow of strips some time...

Ava's dress was nice, because the length of the t-shirt made for a perfect length of dress, so I didn't have to mess with the bottom hem. Most playdresses are around knee-length, but I'm really liking the midcalf length for her.

For the sleeves, I decided to tuck under the fabric at the top of the shoulder and make a little 1/2 inch reinforced stitch perpendicular to the collar. That brought the fabric in a little at the shoulder for a more feminine line, and it also caused the fabric around the sleeve to curl under a bit, so that you don't notice that it's unhemmed. I like the look, for a casual play dress.

Ava wanted a matching headband, like the little girl on the tutorial, so I gathered up a long strip of the t-shirt fabric with a basting stitch and sewed it to a strip of elastic. The stitch ended up pretty uneven on the elastic, but no one will see that.


The girls had fun with the photo shoot, especially the elder child.



I think I may be raiding Derek's drawer for long-forgotten tees. It's very satisfying to make a dress in under an hour.