This is a simple tutorial on how to turn an existing oversize shirt into a dress. It may be that you have clothes lying around that no longer fit, thanks to some weight loss success. Instead of discarding them or letting them take up space unnecessarily, you can easily repurpose them into dresses in your size. You can make this dress using just about any oversize male or female shirt that you have. You don’t need new fabric to make this dress.
Tools Needed
Oversized shirt
Sewing machine
Tape measure
Ruler
Needle
Thread
Pins
Steps
- Lay your fabric on a flat surface. Using the tape measure, measure from the shoulder seam of the shirt to your natural waist level. Mark the spot with a chalk.
- Next, draw a line across the waist where you measured, and cut off the shirt from that point. You should have two pieces now.
- Since the shirt is oversize, we will need to gather the lower part of the fabric to fit. Gathering a fabric is simply making uneven pleats that reduce the width of a fabric. So lets say the current waist of the oversize shirt is measured at 60 inches, but your own waist measurement is 32 inches. You can gather the excess fabric to reduce the measurement to 32 inches.
- Some sewing machines have the gather function that does the job for you. If your machine is one of these, simply set it to gather and place the fabric at the waist point. Sew all round the waist and watch the fabric pull together. Check to see that it has gathered to the desired waist measurement.
- If your machine does not have this function, set your machine stitches to the longest stitch, then sew round the waist of the fabric. Do not backstitch at any point. Take the fabric away from the machine. Pick either the upper or lower thread on the single line you just made, and slowly pull it towards you with one hand, while pushing the fabric away with another. You should see the fabric slowly gather.
- Continue till the waist is evenly gathered to your desired waist measurement. Set the fabric aside.
- Take the upper part of the shirt and turn it right sides together. That means turning it inside out.
- From the seam allowance, measure your correct chest and sleeve size, then mark it on the fabric.
- Take the fabric to the machine and sew a straight stitch on the new measurement you marked out. Here, you are slim-fitting the upper part of the shirt to your size.
- Next, turn the gathered fabric inside out too, then attach to the upper part of the fabric. Secure with pins. This should look as if you want to join them back the way the shirt initially was.
- Sew both parts of the shirt back together with a straight stitch.
- Check the finished dress to see that it fits. What you should have now is a gathered waist dress. The gather at the waist of the dress will have taken off all the excess fabric from the shirt, and you should be left with a lower part that looks like a peplum.
That’s it. Give this sewing project a try and impress yourself with your newly repurposed dress.
About the author: Amina Salau is a writer and editor running The Illuminated Pen. You can find her online at www.theilluminatedpen.com and on Twitter (@_Aminah)
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This article was first published on 1st January 2015
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