I found this today and realized that I never shared this refashion project with you. I do that ALOT. I promise to share more of my projects with you from now on. Anyhoo…I made this dress for Livie back in the fall for her Thanksgiving outfit. The pictures are not the best, they were taken at sundown but you get the idea.
Poppa gave me this Nautica shirt which did not fit anymore but was practically brand new and I loved the fabric (which is why I bought it for him in the first place).
He handed it to me and said “see what you can make with this”. Ummm…Yes Sir! Did you just ask me to embark on a new refashion project..swoon! The shirt is way wrinkled, sorry but its the only one I took. I did not really expect to like the end product so…there you go.
In my stash I found some stretchy cotton velour which felt like velvet which I used to make the pinafore top. The shirt fabric reminds me of a pique weave. The body of the dress was so easy. I just cut the shirt straight across just below the shirt pocket, ran a gathering stitch along the cut edge and attached it to the brown velour top portion. I then serged the raw edges in the inside (if you don’t have a serger you could zigzag the raw edge on the inside). The hem is already done for you unless you don’t like the curved bottom of the shirt. I wanted it to be all the same level so I cut it straight and rehemmed it but if you leave it you can really see that it is made from a man’s shirt which is really cute.
The pantaloons are made of the sleeves which were really easy to cut off and sew together to make the legs and bottom portion. Livie has a big bottom so I needed more fabric so I cut the sleeves including some of the fabric from the shoulders as you can see in that seam there. I made a casing and threaded some elastic thru..done.
I made another casing from the brown velour, sewed in onto where the white ruffle meets the shirt fabric and left the ends open to thread some satin brown ribbon through and tied a bow.
to finish the Autumn look I drew an acorn and embroidered the design on which I sewed to the front of the pinafore. This was the perfect Thanksgiving outfit and so easy to make. Next time your hubby hands you a shirt that he does not want (or you make a great find at a thrift store) get your refashion on.
