Friday, February 24, 2006

Redesigning a T-shirt into a dress




This set was one of two I did for a trade with another sewing mama. I morphed a crossover t-shirt into a dress. I love this print, but it's cotton lycra and it decided to be difficult when it came time to sew it, lol. I think this is a Baby Nay print, it's the same manufacturer who does Baby Nay and I bought it at the same time I found a bunch of baby nay stuff.

Anyway, so I basically flared out the sides and lengthened the t-shirt into a knee length dress. Then I added leggings to complete the set. The sleeves and hem are lettuce edged as is the hem on the leggings. I love lettuce edging, I think it adds such a cute feminine quality to outfits.

The second set was done in a cute, cute polka dot knit, but the picture came out just horrific, lol. I could not get the colors to look normal in the picture, so you're just going to have to imagine it, lol.

Directions for turning a t-shirt into a dress (this can be done with any t-shirt, I just chose a crossover top pattern to do it with):
#1 Take the measurement of your child (or you) from the back of the neck down to the length of the dress. For a 2t/3t toddler, my measurement was about 20 inches.
#2 I take the back pattern piece for the t-shirt and lay it on some tracing cloth and lay my tape along it a the fold line. I start my tape measure 1/2 inch above the neckline of the pattern piece to account for the ribbing/binding of the t-shirt.
#3 Then I mark my measurement for the length (eg. 20 inches for 2t/3t toddler and add 1/2 inch for the hemline.
#4 I take my ruler and move up to the side seam about 1 1/2 to 2 inches under the underarm and I use my ruler to flare out the skirt of the dress. I trace the line of my ruler until I reach the hemline.
#5 I move to the front pattern piece and trace the upper part of the front pattern piece, then I use my new back pattern piece and lay it over to create the same hemline and flare of the skirt, by lining it up at the side seams at the underarm and tracing.

Have fun!!

No comments: