Upcycling Obsession: shirt to dress

My mom taught me how to sew when I was younger. When I was in 8th grade, I made a dress for my baby sister - one of those school projects (gotta love those class projects). Then when I was in 11th or 12th grade I took a sewing class in high school. I wasn't amazing, but had sewn a little more than anyone else in the class, and my teacher was impressed. She told me that I should enter some sewing projects into a competition at an FHA conference at BYU. And . . . I didn't (the story of my life).

After high school, I don't think I even touched my mom's sewing machine. It wasn't until about 10 years later, when my sis was prego with her first, that I wanted to make my niece-to-be a baby blanket (so she'd remember her favorite aunt who lived miles away).

A few years have gone by and now I have a little one of my own. I've been inspired by many other sewing bloggers and have loved the idea of upcycling.

A few months ago I went to a thrift store and found this cute shirt (for a very petite woman - wasn't gonna fit me) for 3 buckaroos. I thought it'd make the cutest dress for little girl A.

So what I first did was:

-I brought out a dress that currently fits my little girl A.


-Then I folded the shirt (shoulder to shoulder), put the folded dress on top and cut around her dress. (get the idea or is this just too confusing?)


-I sewed the sides together.


-Made the binding out of the sleeve scrapes and placedit on the collar area (sorry my terms aren't very technical).


And I had tried doing flutter sleeves, but they just weren't turning out . . . so I took them off.

The bottom was the original bottom of the shirt so I didn't need to sew that up.

(the "I'm sick of the picture taking"look)

And voila! You have a cute little dress for your little munchkin to wear. I love the ruffles and lace that I didn't even had to add on!