Yes I did. I chopped up one of my hardworking man’s old dress shirts and turned it into the cutest little dress for Grace. My interest in such a project was piqued by others in blogland and by a darling little dress I saw in the kids Garnet Hill catalog. I didn’t take pictures along the way because I did it at night and I honestly wasn’t sure it would turn out. But if you want to give it a go, I scribbled some lines on a photo for you. If you try it and get stuck, shoot me an email and I’ll tell you what I did. Here’s the basic rundown:
- remove upper collar, topstitch lower collar closed again
- remove pockets
- chop up shirt into basic A-line dress, leaving collar and buttons intact (be sure to cut front and back together, they’ll be connected at the top)
- use sleeve fabric to cut out two new sleeves – here is a great little tutorial on how to sew a puff sleeve and here is a standard sleeve pattern that you can download and use that tutorial to sew for this dress.
- sew front to back along side seams
- hem bottom
- attach new sleeves
- sew rows of shirring across front; I sewed 9 rows about ¼ inch apart each – be sure the two sides of shirring match up when the shirt is buttoned closed
- sew on cute bows (or not!)
If you’re lucky, your cute little model will have as much fun in her new dress as mine did!
Comments & Reviews
Anonymous says
You didnt show me this one today!!! OK….now its on my ever growing list to do!! I REALLY love the grey!!!
Marianne says
How adorable! Talk about recycling!
Stef says
Thanks, everyone!Ms Moppet – yes, I just removed the pockets and steamed the lines a bit. Once the dress was sewn up and the shirring done, you can’t tell there was ever a pocket there!
мамаДаника says
Супер получилось!Вы молодцы!
The Homemaker says
WOW!!! I LOVE IT!!! I repurpose shirts frequently for children’s craft smocks (Etsy store TheHomeMaker)but this is too cute for words!!! Thanks for sharing!
Ms Moppet says
So cute! I have been wanting to try this (with one of my shirts actually) I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about it but you have inspired me. I can’t quite tell what you did with the pockets? did you just remove them? urbanmoppets.blogspot.com
Michelle says
This is adorable! I have seen lots of shirt conversions lately but this is my absolute favorite. I am going to have to copy this one, the bows and the shirring are the perfect touch.
Kristie-Creating Chaos says
That is fantastic! By far the cutest dress shirt to dress I’ve seen. I love the shirring and bows.
Lynne says
Fabulous! What a great refashion!
Kerilyn says
How sweet is that!? Daddy must be melting seeing his little girl all dressed up in his shirt. SERIOUSLY adorable!!
Anne says
Oh my! That is the cutest repurpose of a man’s business shirt I have ever seen. Who would’ve thought that something so plain and not really a little girl’s colour could look so beautiful! You certainly are very talented.
Anne @ Domesblissity
notes of sincerity says
Oh my sweet goodness!That is so precious.And just think, your daughteris wearing her daddy’s shirt.I wish I could sew like you do!!!
Sharon says
too cute! I will have to give this a try, thanks for sharing!
amanda says
SERIOUSLY… How do you come up with this stuff??!! Lovely…as usual!
april says
Absolutely darling!!!! You are so talented! Great job 🙂