Shirred Sundress from a Tee Shirt

A while back, I got a boat load of little boys tee shirts off of the clearance rack at Wal-Mart.  Having all boys, I kept a ton of them.  They make fabulous play shirts.  Who cares if they ruin a shirt that cost $1.00?!  Not me!

A few of them, I refashioned into other things--skirts, pajama pants for my dudes, etc…  I’ve got tutorials for them coming soon. 

This one, however, I refashioned into a shirred sundress for my six year old niece.  Oh goodness.  It looks so yummy on her!  :)

So, start with a cheapola tee shirt.  This one was a boys XXL.  Turn it inside out, and mark where you’re going to chop it and sew it.

See the line I drew up by the collar?  That’s where I am cutting it off.  The lines by the sleeves and armpits are where I am going to sew them, then cut them off.

Make your necessary cuts, and sew the seams you need.  Save the sleeves.  We’ll need them later. 

The shirt should now look like this:

I serged around the top and sides, but that isn’t necessary.  Knit won’t fray.  Remember, when you’re sewing with knits to lengthen your stitch so that the fabric will still stretch.

Let’s shirr the shirt, shall we?

Wind the bobbin with elastic thread by hand.  Thread it into your sewing machine, and thread the top of the machine with whatever color of thread you want.

Start sewing.  Don’t stretch the fabric as you sew, but don’t let it bunch up, either.  Sew in one long downward spiral using the last sewn line as a guide, so everything stays even.  If you mess up?  Don’t worry about it.  Shirring is very forgiving.

So, after you’ve shirred as much as you want, backstitch and take the dress off of your  machine.  It should now look like this:

Super cute.  Remember the sleeves you didn’t throw away?  Cut the hem off of them and sew them to the dress as straps.  Like so:

I also took a strip of the sleeve and gave it a good stretch.  I tied it into a bow and sewed it to the front center of the dress to add a little more cuteness to this already super cute dress.  You could decorate this so many fun ways.  Rosettes.  Buttons.  Yo yo flowers with buttons.  Pretty much, anything you do with this cute dress would be adorable!

Sorry you don’t get a picture of someone actually wearing the dress.  My boys would kill me if I even asked them to try it on!  :)

Well, there you have a fun, easy, and cheap way to make a cute new sundress for your little gal!