In the age of electric sewing machines, hand sewing seems like a thing of the past. It is alive and well my friends. Hence this project. At least the first part of it anyway.
So, I needed a project for a three hour car ride to and from the airport. And because children’s clothes use less fabric, I decided to make something for none other than Curly Cutie. I am determined to use every piece of clothing given to me by my neighbor before she moved. Remember the first t-shirt refashion I completed from said clothes? Ha! Actually Curly Cutie is wearing the shirt today. She loves it. On to our next subjects.
Armed with a pattern, these t-shirts, scissors, and pins I was ready to take this project on the road. I decided to use the floral print and solid red t-shirts to make CC a dress. I thought I would use the white shirt to add ruffles or something, but I nixed that. I completed the project in well under the three hours. There were some things I didn’t have to do since I used finished garments. No hemming or finishing seams.
I removed the sleeves from original shirt. Cut those down to size and reattached. Left neckline alone. Cut off bottom. I sliced the floral print shirt right underneath v-neck and just used bottom portion. There was only one problem. When we got home and CC tried it on it was way to big. She also made a request to have it sleeveless. So much for ALL my hard work. Lol.
That’s what I get for trying a new pattern and not sticking to what is tried and true. Using a piece of nice fitting clothing as a pattern. No need to fix a method that’s not even broken. If CC would be able to wear this, I had to go back in and fix it. It was kinda sad having to pick through those hand stitches. Since I was at home, you already know I hopped on my machine to get the job done. This in no way took away from my appreciation of hand stitching. I learned that if I needed to do it, I could. Being that I don’t have to right now, I won’t. Lol.
We both really like the final product.
I’m not all that comfortable just yet with finishing knit armholes. For this project I just used the hem of the original sleeve and added it to the tank part. Turned out great.
And this is another way we are doing clothes for CC the easy (inexpensive) way.
I love these type of repurposing projects & it turned out perfect !
Thanks so much Rachel! I really like these types of projects too.
That dress is so pretty! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much Tara! I think it turned out well.
So cute!!!
Thank you Katherine!
That turned out absolutely adorable! I admire the fact that you hand-sewed the first time around and then had to heart to remove it all to make it work. Both versions were lovely!
Thanks so much Tiffany. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Especially after seeing the smile on my daughter’s face. She is on this whole “make sure my words don’t hurt others” kick. I could tell she was trying really hard to let me know that she did not want sleeves on her dress without hurting my feelings. So cute. I let her know that I was happy to fulfill her request. A girl’s gotta feel good about what she has on, right? Lol.
Love it and the armholes turned out great! That’s how i do armholes; why go through more trouble than you have to. Very nice!
They did and I was too excited! Thank you so much Nellie.
That’s lovely! And you have a very beautiful model, too.
Thanks so much! Yeah, she’s such a doll.
Ooooo, this turned out so cute! I’m sorry you had to go back and refashion your refashion, but it was well worth it. The colors are so summery and gives me hope that warmer weather is coming soon. Great job using up what you have available, something I’m trying to do around here, too.
Beth
Thanks Beth! Yes, please come warm weather. I am definitely trying to work my way through this stash. I like this dress because it’s cute, comfortable and CC liked it.
fantastic, it looks gorgeous, and thanks for stopping by my blog x
Thank you! I was glad I stopped by your blog today. You are quite the creative one! Great stuff on there.
I love this and would like to make one for my Grandaughter. Where can I find instructions?
Hi Nancy! If you do a search for children’s tshirt dress tutorial, you will find several tutorials to help you with this project. You can choose the one you like. I do not remember exactly which one I used. Sorry about that.