t-shirt copy dress


Tuesday has a little dress that she loves. It’s a simple soft jersey knit and I wanted to figure out how it was constructed to make her another. So when Bj got a super soft jersey shirt (that also happened to be super skinny fit and small) I knew it was just the thing to try (bottom hem already done after all!).

To figure out the size of the dress I just laid the one she likes on top of the shirt and sort of made up a pattern. I just made it wider on top so there would be a bit to gather. I didn’t worry about the button placket, she didn’t use it to get it on and off anyway.

I ended up with two pieces like this, utilizing the bottom hem.

I cut strips about 2 inches wide for the strips. That way I had enough fabric to fold under for a clean seam:

I mitered the edges and sewed them all together.

I couldn’t figure out how to do this with out backing it on a piece of muslin. I cut as much of it away as I could after I seamed. Is there a better way to do this? I’m not sure, but at least this way the thin material didn’t get sucked into my machine.

Here you can see how the dress fits together. I already sewed the sides together and hemmed the edges of the arm holes (just folded over and top stitched). I gathered it a bit and pinned the edges of the strap part so it was sandwiched the dress in between. Then I top stitched very close to the edge all the way around the square strap part.

I added this logo to the back. I just cut it out and put it on with a small zig-zag stitch. I should have put interfacing under it first, it was hard to get nice straight stitches, but it works.

The next day Tuesday wanted to wear the dress over her jammies top. I woke up to her in this outfit. Of course you can’t ask for more than that when you’re making kid’s stuff! I’m so glad she likes it. I am going to give it another try. I think making the dress pieces a bit wider so there is more to gather at top would look nicer. Also I could do shorter straps and she’d still be able to get into it without trouble (the material is so stretchy). She’s pretty much in a 3T size right now and I think I could make this type of dress from a t-shirt until she’s a 5T size, depending on the length of the t-shirt of course.
There are so many cute t-shirt to kids clothes tutorials and patterns out there. I bought this one from Lil Blue Boo, but I haven’t tried it yet. Have you tried to refashion a t-shirt into kids clothes? What did you make?

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6 Comments

  1. Amber – Very cute. Here’s my favorite knit dress pattern. I copied it and made the skirt narrower so that I could recycle tshirts. I shopped for them at thrift stores/good will. SOmetimes even mixed 2 different prints/colors. I made 15 for both of my nieces. They loved them and would dig them out of the laundry to wear again.
    http://www.banberryplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7
    also..my favorite sewing website http://www.sewingmamas.com
    There is a user (whose name escapes me) who makes frank-en-dresses out of fabric and tshirts. Check out the gallery. Very fun.

  2. My Mom got my ‘new’ machine running. I guess the bobbins were wrong… This might be my first project- with some help of course 🙂

  3. AWESOME! You know I love repurposing a t-shirt! The dress turned out adorable. it looks like you bought it at an art fair! I am a fan of figure it out as you go- sewing 🙂 So cute!

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