Sunday, August 16, 2009

dress shirt revamp

I saw this tutorial over the weekend, and knew I had to try it out:
And so I did.
I've been buying a ton of dress shirts from Goodwill for a quilt I've been working on, and decided to sacrifice one of the shirts for a cute dress (click to enlarge). I followed the instructions exactly as to how to deconstruct the shirt (a size large), but then amended the directions as follows:
Since I'm smaller than the tutorial's creator (5'2", size 0) I was able to get away with using both sleeves as the entire bodice without the complicated insertion instructions. I left the hem on the skirt as-is, hemmed like the bottom of the shirt it previously was. I also used my machine for the ruffles, using 2 long basting stitches on each.
The bodice on mine is a lot longer than the original posting, but I'm actually really happy about that: with the elastic at the waist, I can pull it up to make it shorter or pull it down to make it longer. I'm totally wearing it to work tomorrow with a cardigan.
Total cost: $2.00 at Goodwill, as I already had the elastic and thread at home. I could make this a million more times, and probably will!

5 comments:

  1. Wow, Rachel, your dress turned out beautiful! (You're lucky you're smaller than I am - scavenging the extra fabric for the bodice was a huge pain and time-sink.) I love the extra-ruffliness of the top. You did a great job!
    Thank you for visiting my blog and for trying one of my tutes - I think you're the first;-)

    xoxo
    Carly
    http://chicsteals.blogspot.com

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  2. It is stunning! And I can't believe you made it from a shirt! Amazing! Your clothing creations are always so wonderful, and you model them so well!!!

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  3. That is adorable!! I think I saw this on Stylicious & loved it. Great job! It looks fab on you!

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  4. Hi again Rachel!
    I was wondering if I can post your photo above and a linkback to your post on my blog - I'm writing something about where my tute was featured and readers who tried it out...and your dress turned out super-cute!
    Pls let me know if it's okay!
    Thanks again!
    xoxox
    Carly

    http://chicsteals.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete