Shirt to Dress

I usually go through my closet every month and get rid of things I haven't worn in a while.  I used to just toss it into a pile and then take it to the DI, but sadly no DI in Cheyenne. (Oh how I miss the DI)   Instead I try to figure out if I can reuse the item and make it something better. 

I bought this shirt a few years ago from AE and really loved it.  Unfortunately over the past years the armpits have turned a little yellowish. (Don't act like you don't have shirts with the same problem!)  Instead of throwing it out I figured I could turn it into something for Tana. 

I started by cutting up the side seams on the shirt.  I did this with basic sewing scissors instead of a seam ripper because I didn't need it to be a clean line. 



I decided how wide I needed each piece to be.  Savanah is about 21" around the bust so I used that as a guide.  I also made my cut at an A-line so that it would flow out like a dress.



To cut all the pieces may take a little bit of time.  You want to make sure that they are equally spaced from the middle of the shirt and that both pieces are the same width.



Place pieces right sides together, lining them up at the bottom.  I didn't do anything to the bottom of the shirt so that I would already have a finished edge, but if you need the dress shorter, you would fix that.  Mark on each side where the armpit of your child would be.  Now sew up the sides making sure you DO NOT sew past the armpit marks.

To make the shoulder straps I measured around Savanah's shoulder to see how long I needed them to be.  After I had this measurement I cut my two pieces accordingly.  This meant trimming off some of the front straps and the back straps.  I then lined up the front and the back right sides together and serged across them.

To finish off the outside raw edges of the arm openings, I made bias tape out of the leftover material.  If you don't have any leftover material you could use some coordinating fabric.  I wanted my bias tape to be a little thicker, so I cut mine about 2 1/2 inches wide.  I did not measure how long the piece was, I only made sure it would be long enough.

Create your bias tape be folding the material in half hot dog style and ironing flat.  Open the pieces, fold each side to the middle, and iron flat again.  Fold in half again with the two sides still ironed towards the middle.  It should look like the picture above.  If this makes absolutely no sense (which I am pretty sure it doesn't) Google "making your own bias tape". 

I started pinning the bias tape to the arm openings at the bottom of the opening.  I left a little bias tape hanging over the edge to make sure I would catch both ends.  Pin your bias tape all the way around the opening until you reach the point at which you started.  Sew you bias tape into place.



Using the spot where you marked the bottom of the armpit, sew the two ends of the bias tape together.  To do this I started serging from the outside and went towards the middle, at an angle, meeting up with the side seam.



My little model was sleeping when I finished this, so you don't get the full effect.  I think it will look awfully cute with a skinny belt around it.  Enjoy!