Pillowcase Style Ruffle Dress

…made from a tee shirt…

How about some sewing?  I {heart} sewing. 

And clothing refashion.

And chocolate.

How cute is this?

It was so fun to make.  I made it for my friend’s daughter, and I made it out of her daddy’s tee shirt.

Yeah.  My lighting was awful.  It was late at night when I made this.  Forgive me.  Anyway, cut the top of the shirt off like you see it in the picture,

Fold the top of it down and pin it into place.  Leave the raw edge on the outside.  Sew it close to the edge.  This is going to create a casing for the ribbon and straps.

Do the same thing to the other side. 

Remember this lovely roll of knit ribbing I got from my MIL, The Queen?  I’m using more of this fabulous stuff for this dress.  If you don’t have a roll of knit ribbing, just use several 1” strips of knit fabric.  You could even cut up a tee shirt in a circular pattern to get one very long strip of fabric.

Starting at the bottom, sew the knit strips to the shirt.

Keep going until you have this:

Now sew some ribbon to the waistband of the dress. 

Sew it along the top and bottom of the ribbon so that you have a casing for your elastic.  Leave a small opening somewhere so you can thread your elastic into the casing.

Oops.  I don’t have a picture of that.  Shame on me.  Just pretend this ribbon is elastic in the picture below, and that the casing below is the ribbon casing you just made, savvy?!

Now thread some ribbon through the casing you made at the top of the dress.  (refer to the above picture!  ;))  Thread the same piece of ribbon through the front and back casings.  Sew the ribbon ends together so that your dress has straps and now looks like this on top:

See that top casing and the scrunched up waistband?  That is what I was trying (and probably failing) to explain above.

Now take the top casings and bunch and scrunch them so that you have a gathered neckline.  Sew them into place.

Isn’t that a fun dress for Summer?  Oh, goodness, and it looks so cute on a toddler!

Isn’t that precious? 

I should show you who is really wearing that dress.  Hint:  it isn’t my friend’s little gal!

I shouldn’t show you.

Someone might turn me in.

Hubby might not be too happy.

Oh, but it’s so funny!  I have to share!

Ha ha ha!

Monkey does NOT like wearing girl clothes!  :)