shirt altered to dress
I have an oversized men's Hawaiian print shirt that I've worn a few times over the years, and having seen a video on ehow.com on altering a men's shirt to be more fitted, I had some ideas about changing the old shirt. Then I saw a small dress that a friend had brought back from Hawaii as a gift for the grandniece and decided I would take that old shirt and make a little dress instead. Here is the shirt.
I wish I had taken more pictures of the stages of alteration, but I was kind of anxious to get the dress done in one day. First, I drafted my pattern for the bodice, based on the original dress. To get my material, I cut the front right and left panels from the shirt, and was able to cut two of the bodice front piece and two of the bodice. I sewed one bodice at the side seams, then sewed the second bodice the same. With the right sides together, sewed the two together along the neck, arms (left the shoulder straps open because I wanted to fit the dress on the baby first), then pulled it all right sides out.
Then I cut the back panel from the shirt and was able to cut enough material for front and back pieces of the skirt. Sewed the sides of the skirt together. Threaded a needle and sewed a basting thread along the top of the skirt, pulled the threads together to form a ruffle. Pinned the ruffled edge to the bodice and sewed in place. Hemmed the skirt.
Took the outfit over to fit it on the grandniece (wriggly). I originally thought of putting some kind of button or snap at the top of the shoulder straps but realized once she had it on, that the straps were a little short. So, after spending an hour playing with the baby, came home to finish the dress. Cut two pieces of elastic about 4 1/2 inches long, then cut material to add to the straps to cover the elastic. I got that figured out but I didn't cut the material long enough so it doesn't look as ruffled as I wanted it to (note to self, stretch the elastic piece to determine how long the material cover should be). Added the elastic and material to the straps. Here is the dress.
Took from about 10:30am to 3:30pm for most of the dress, then about an hour to figure out how to get the straps finished. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it and can't wait to see it on the baby!