Thrifted Shirt to Little Girl's Dress - A Refashion

First off, a piece of news:  I unfortunately did not make the cut for PRP this year. I'll try again next season, and I might consider doing the Flikr group sew along, if time allows.  Good luck to the sewists who did make it!

On to today:

On my failed Goodwill trip last week, I picked up a few shirts for myself.  They have a fitting room there, but I have 2 small children and they have a 14 day return policy.  So when I brought this shirt home, I saw it totally did nothing to flatter me. It was frumpy and all wrong.

But, I loved the color, the embellishments, and the linen fabric. It's really a butter yellow color, but it's been raining here for a while and getting photos was a challenge.

And so, I saw it becoming something else.  I just happen to have the 2 most beautiful nieces who live around the corner. Who unfortunately were not available for photos today!  So I only have 2D photos, sorry!  I made a white ribbon sash to wear around the waist of it too, so I'm excited to see it all together on them.

To make a girl's dress from a thrifted shirt:

Use another dress in their size as a guideline.  I marked the waistline where i wanted it on the shirt, and marked some extra room for the seam allowance.  I use a 3/8" seam allowance, which is the edge of my presser foot.

Draw a line from the sleeve edge to the waistline.  I wanted to keep the flounced sleeves, so I used the existing armholes...which also saved me time and effort.  And you can see I drew a lot of different lines until I was happy with it.

Draw a line from the waistline to where you want the hem of the dress. I drew mine with as an A-line dress, but you can make whatever shape you need.  I also shortened the overall shirt length, which meant I had to re-hem it.  If you don't mind long, or have a taller girl, you might be able to reuse the original hem.

Iron the shirt, line up the side seams, and pin all the way down each side.  That way you make sure you cut evenly down each side, and the fabric doesn't slip.

Fold the shirt in half, so that you line up ALL the side seams.  This is so that when you cut, you cut symmetrically on each side of the dress.  Make sure whichever way you pin it you can see your lines.

Cut along the line from sleeve, to waist, to the hemline, and across the bottom.


Trim up any uneven cuts, and make sure you have the line you want.  If you unpin it to check the shape, just make sure if you cut again that you line up and repin evenly.  You should have one long mirrored dress piece, like this: the front of the dress is on the left, then the neckline, then the back of the dress.

Use your machine to sew a straight stitch down each side seam, using the seam allowance you chose earlier.


Protect the inside seams. If you are using a knit, it's not a big deal, since it won't unravel.  My shirt/dress was woven though, so I used an overlock stitch and foot on my sewing machine.  If you have a serger, use that on your seams. I'm just not that lucky yet. :)

Hem the bottom. I used a rolled hem, but if you aren't comfortable doing that, you can fold over 1/4" twice, and press all the way around, and then straight stitch down the hem around.

Add embellishments.  We decided the dress looked too plain, so I added a line of pretty lace around the bottom of the dress, attaching it with a straight stitch to the underside of the hem.

It actually did something fantastic to the edge of the dress - the whole thing ruffles up around the edge now, and doesn't lay flat!  It adds a ton of character and makes it all more fun.

Things to keep in mind:  My dress had buttons, so if there's an issue of getting the dress on over the head, it can be unbuttoned.  A knit will likely stretch enough to accommodate the head, but if you have a woven material, you might consider adding snaps or a zipper to the back of the dress.

PS - I actually got V (my niece) to try it on, but I had to bribe her with a dollar and a handful of Cadbury mini's....and once it was on, she was ready to do something else already.  I didn't have time to get a picture.  I guess we'll call it a fitting... :)

But here's the other dress:

Z wore the princess dress around today - I made it for V but a girl would get jealous if only her sister got a dress.  It's a little big in the bodice, for about the next what, 2 weeks?  She wore it well. Please please don't notice the pile of clean laundry behind her.