The Shirt Dress

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the waiting room of the dentist's office, waiting for my latest orthodontic torture session. I picked up a Martha Stewart Living magazine and flipped through it to see what magical things Martha had dreamt up for her readers.

In this particular issue, she had an article on ideas for things to do with men's dress shirts. Pillows, dolls, etc., plus one idea that I thought was just such a great idea that when I got home, I hopped online to see if she had the directions for the project. She did.

What was this fabulous project you ask? Well, thank you for asking. It was making a little girl's dress out of a men's dress shirt. I know! How awesome is that?

I read through the project on Martha's page, and read the comments at the bottom of the page and one of them directed me to this blog, which had a step-by-step tutorial with pictures of each step (the pictures are so important, I put them in italics, as you may have noticed.) She also used elastic in the neck and sleeves instead of a drawstring, which I thought was a better idea. The patterns are also significantly different and Martha does not have a separate piece for the sleeves, which I think makes it harder to custom fit the dress.

John is always wearing out the collars and sleeve hems on his shirts, so we had a couple of old shirts around for me to experiment on. I first made one out of a plaid shirt, but I measured the pattern wrong and the first dress I made not only looked funny, it was too tight on Ruby--she couldn't even button it up at the chest. I incorporated parts of it in the new dress, so it did not go to waste.

So, I tried again and took pictures this time. If you actually want to make one of these shirts, please go to the blog linked above, because her directions are fabulous. If you want to get a general idea of what this project involves, read on!

The first thing to do is to make a pattern. For me, this was the hardest part, but once you get it down, you can use it over and over. This is my second pattern, because the first one didn't work, as I already mentioned. There's one piece for the front and back, and one for the two sleeves.

I lined up the pattern on the shirt to see about lining up the buttons (there are a couple of options for the top of the opening, which will be discussed later.)

And then I cut off the collar, including the yoke in the back, and the sleeves. I made sure to include as much sleeve as possible, because I needed every inch of fabric I could get. Men's shirts are weird, and each shirt I checked out had a different amount of fabric for the sleeves. Also, make sure to smooth out any pleats on the back before cutting.

I had to do some finagling to get the sleeve pattern to fit. I had to undo some of the shoulder seam and undo the hem. I also had to make the pattern a little smaller. It's just important to make sure the edge that will be sewn to the front and back stays the same length, otherwise, it's very flexible. I shortened it side-to-side and top-to-bottom (top-to-bottom you can see in the next picture.)

Here are the pieces all cut out. The sleeve is sitting on top of the front and back pieces. You'll note that the bottom of the pattern doesn't line up. I left the bottom open-ended and left the shirt's hem in place so I could adjust as needed at the end.

The pattern from the blog creates a raglan-style sleeve (no top shoulder seam, it's commonly seen on sweaters). You can see that the front, back and sleeves together create the neckline.

After sewing all the pieces together, and removing the pocket, I sewed the side seams, which include the armpit. From the first dress, I made my own seam tape and used that to make the casing for the neck elastic. I also made ties and sewed them into the side seams.

I also made casings for the sleeves, and put the elastic in the neck and sleeves. While removing the pocket, I ripped a little hole in the shirt (it's an old shirt and the fabric is pretty worn and thin). I covered it up by making an iron-on applique flower and then sewing a button into the middle of it. I used the pocket from the first shirt and sewed it onto the skirt of the dress to use as a pocket. I sewed a simple hem around the bottom and put a snap in at the top. I ironed on another little flower applique to cover the back of the snap. You could just sew the top shut or put in another button, or cut the front just right so you're left with a button at the top.

Here's a picture of the dress all finished and hanging up.

And here it is on my Ruby. She was so excited about it, she wore it to church today and told everyone that I had made it out of one of John's old shirts.

Ta-daaa! And that's my first successful attempt at a shirt dress. I feel so pioneer-y! There are a number of things I'll do differently. I'll make the sleeves with less fabric so they're not so puffy, and I'll make it more of an A-line dress. Now that I've made a couple of them and have a better idea of how all the pieces come together, I think I can do it right.

Squig and I went to Goodwill last week and picked up a couple of men's shirts for $2.95 each! You can't buy the fabric for a dress for that price. One is pink and purple striped, and the other is a red and white gingham. I think they'll both be cute. The pink and purple shirt is long-sleeved, which will give me more flexibility when making the sleeves.

This dress was free. I used an old shirt, and elastic that I already had around. Can't beat free!