How to make a dress from an oversize shirt

I got a request to make a tutorial on how I made this dress;

First of all, you will need to know some basic sewing to do this, because I won't go into details on how to add a zipper and such, as it would simply make this post waaay too long. Secondly, finding a suitable shirt to re-vamp might not be that easy, as getting enough fabric for both top and bottom even for little old me was tricky. But still possible! I'd look for something with wide and long sleeves...Also, you could just make the skirt-part if there isn't enough fabric.

As I didn't plan to make a tutorial when I made the dress, I took no pictures of the process itself. So I'll just have to try and explain what I did...Hopefully I'll get you inspired to re-use something old and make something new, and save the environment etc. So here goes. I first thrifted a very large sized shirt with all in one sleeves, made from a thick and suitably stiff material;

I decided on my desired skirt length and marked it, plus a 1 cm seam allowance, measuring from the hem up. Then I cut my skirt part out, zig-zagged the raw edges and sewed close the left side all the way up. I also carefully removed the pockets and sewed them back on higher up.

The next step was to cut the collar out, leaving a bit of fabric at the front to work with. At the back of the collar I undid the seam and removed the collar from the back of the shirt. Here I noticed that I would not be able to fit my head through the collar if sewed shut (where there used to be buttons to undo), so I left it open at the back instead. I then turned the undone neck parts back in towards each other and sewed shut, leaving the back with two straps, too short to tie, but long enough close with a button and buttonhole or my version; hook and loop tape for more adjustability.

Here's a little explanation on how I cut the shirt up;

(Click for larger image)

But before I did any cutting I had to measure the sleeves across to see whether or not they were wide enough to make into a top for the dress. They were, just...So I cut the pieces out, comparing the width to my best fitting top pattern. I made some adjustments, added darts at the bust, and made sure the back (and front!) was high enough to cover a bra. All edges got zig-zagged and the darts sewed. I then sewed the left side shut.

The next step was to fit the collar in. I fitted the collar as if the top was a vest or pullover and the collar was peeking out, and sewed the pieces together, really close to the collar. The zig-zagged egdes were turned in, of course.

Now, the sides/arm holes were still open. I cut the extra fabric from the collar (sticking out from underneath the top) to match the sides, turned them in towards each other and sewed shut. I then turned the rest of the sides/arm holes over, as well the back, and stitched shut. Now, it was time to add the top to the bottom!

I matched the left side seams to each other, and then the right sides, still open. Next, the center of the top to the center of the bottom, and then on and on, center of top gaps to center of bottom gaps until I ran out of pins...All this to get the wrinkles to spread out nicely and evenly.

Finally, I added a zipper in the gap at the right side, starting in the skirt-part going all the way up to the arm-hole. Done!

Phew! I hope I didn't miss anything, and that you get the idea despite the lack of proper sewing terminology etc. I am, after all, a swedish speaking self-taught seamstress...But if something was really unclear you can always ask about it. And if you do go ahead and make something inspired by this post (or any other posts of mine for that matter) do let me know, I would love to see the results. Good luck and happy sewing!

From curtain to petticoat

On tuesday and wednesday I made a petticoat from two old lace curtains I bought from a charity shop for 2 euros each. I wanted my skirt to be about 60 cm long so I cut the curtains into strips 22 cm wide (20 cm + 1 cm on each side to be sewn). With this width I would need 3 rows of 20 cm strips. Here's one of the curtains folded in half, the strip meant for the bottom part of the petticoat already cut out. The rest of the strips I cut horisontally.

I measured the bottom strips and got 7,6 m, then I put together the next row of sprips and made it half the lenght; 3,8 metres. The top row in turn was half the lenght again; 1,9 metres.

I sewed all the pieces of each row together to make 3 rings of fabric. I then pinned together the middle of the back of the top row, with the middle of the back on the middle row. Then I did the middle of the front of both layers, then the middles of the fabric in between and kept going like this until I had a manageable amount of fabric pinned together for sewing. As one layer is twice the length of the other, the pinning will look something like this;

Of course I couldn't be bothered to put the pins this close to each other anywhere else but on the elastic I used for the waist, but maybe you get the idea? The rest of the fabric (loops sticking up) I wrinkled by hand as I sewed.

After pinning together the two strips at the top, I sewed them together. The I did the same thing with the bottom layer, pinning middle to middle, middle to middle and finally sewing the layers together. Here's the result;

And after this I pinned the top layer to the elastic (as seen above) and carefully zig-zagged it to the elastic, stretching it a little as I went. I used zig-zag here because I want the thread to "stretch" when the elastic stretches and not snap and make the whole thing come undone.

Here's the finished petticoat;


I chose the curtain I did beacause of the ready made ruffles, which meand that I didn't have to line the full 7,6 metres, phew. And it looks pretty cute too!

Now this is not the most poufy petticoat imaginable, but with longer strips it would have been. It all depends on how much fabric you wanna use (or how long your curtains are)! I'm pretty happy with the result though, as I have got a cotton even less poufy petticoat, that I can combine with this one should I require more pouf. And that's how I made my first petticoat! Feel free to ask if there's anything that left you wondering!

How to clone yourself

A few moths ago I decided to clone myself. The reason I wanted to do so was to make sewing, and altering clothes easier for myself. Basically, I wanted to have my own dress form, and here's how I did it.

I found a t-shirt I wasn't using and a few rolls of transparent packing tape and kindly asked my boyfriend a.k.a Mr Kitten to tape me up. I wanted my dressform to have a bit of an arm, so that I can make things that sort of go around my shoulders. I also wanted it to continue down to the wides part of my hips, so that I don't accidentally make a skirt too tight. When I was all taped up, Mr Kitten cut through the tape and the t-shirt from the back and I could peel of my shell;

Then I taped the back together again. We used about 1 ½ rolls of tape and the form was pretty sturdy made from tape + t-shirt alone.


Looking right trough me...

I wanted my form to have a filling, so that it would keep it's shape, and a stand to make it easy to work with. So I went out and after a bit of a search found an old lamp stand for 5 €. I also got some filling material that builders use, makroflex I think it was called, which expands.

I cut up and old plastic bottle (for the neck) and taped it to the stand, then filled it with the flex-stuff...which didn't work out too well as it needs air to dry, which there wasn't too much of in that sealed off bottle and that caused the flex-stuff to sort of melt in parts. But it was still good enough for me, so I continued.


Before the melting.

When the bottle was firmly attached to the upper part of the stand I turned my shell up-side down and put the neck/spine in place.

And started filling the shell up. This took me several days to do, as the flex-stuff takes about 12-24 hours to expand and dry, and you have to do it in layers, because if the layer underneath is not dry, it will melt when there's no contact with air...At this point I did wonder why I hadn't filled it with something else, but hey, trial and error is the way to go, right?

Filled-finally!

Finally I taped a piece of cardboard cut to shape on the bottom to cover the filling up and put the stand back together, et voilà;

My home-made dress form (and my hoover).

If you are into sewing and want your own "customised to you" dress form there are a few things that might be useful to know:

Choose a better looking t-shirt than I did, alternatively cover the finished dress form up in a new fabric/long neck tight t-shirt when it's done. I still need to get one of those cover up shirts as I am not too keen on that yellow t-shirt being visible...Another alternative is to use a coloured tape, or duct-tape, as used on the site from where I got my inspiration.

Be careful when getting taped - don't let it get too tight because you will need to breathe!

Choose a good assistant who isn't shy, they will need to be very careful when doing the taping to avoid creases and get an even result. Me and Mr Kitten were a bit too impatient and as a result, my clone is a bit funny under the arms...I would also recommend using strips of tape, instead of you spinning as your assistant moves the roll of tape up and down. Don't rush!

And finally, use a different filling! Maybe old newspaper or scraps of fabric or old pillows, but nothing too soft or loose.


I am quite pleased with my result, although it is a bit too wide under the arms, and the shoulders got deformed after standing up side down for a few days, but it's close enough. Pinning pieces of fabric together on my back and sides is so much easier when I have a clone to do it on!

Questions?