T-Shirt Dress

I promised to share how I make a simple t-shirt dress.  The end of summer is upon us, so you might get more out of my Scoodie tutorial than out of this one.  Although, I suppose you could pair it with leggings and boots for the winter. 

• You'll need a t-shirt that fits you (we'll call this one the template)
• Two t-shirts that are too big.  If one is significantly larger, it works even better.
• Scissors
• Rotary mat, cutter and ruler, or a ruler to mark and cut with scissors
• Pins
• Sharpie or other felt marking pen
• Sewing machine and matching thread

Okay, grab at least two t-shirts for your project and one t-shirt that fits well.  One should be close to your size, but still have room for editing.  For the tutorial, I piked a gray one that will never fit me, and the purple one that would work, but still be big on me.  Step one, turn the smaller tee inside out and smooth it down flat.  

I measured from the shoulder to my natural waist for this one.  You can really put it anywhere from just under your bust to below the waist, completely up to you.  Chop it off and set the bottom bit aside.  I'm still trying to come up with something good to do with these discarded bits.  I think ruffles are in my future.

Turn your template tee inside-out, too.  This makes it a little easier to find the seams.  Lay it down over your shortened tee, matching up the collar and shoulder seams.

Mark the side seams.  I just draw them about 1/2 inch from the side seams of my template.  Carefully mark the arm hole, as well. 

You can repeat on the other side of the shirt, or fold the tee in half from the collar to the bottom and only cut once.  This has the added benefit of not marking all over the shirt.  Go ahead and sew up your side seams on the top.

Set aside the top and grab the overly-large shirt.  We'll use it to create the skirt portion of the dress and the sleeves.  Lay it flat (inside out or right side isn't too important for this part) and cut it straight across.  I cut this one as deep as I could without cutting into the front design, so it is rather long.  Depending on where you cut your top, this can be cut shorter.

Pin the sleeve of your template tee to the sleeve of the second shirt.  Make sure you match up the hem of the sleeves, unless you want a longer sleeve than your template tee.

Fold it back so you can mark your cut-line about 1/2 from the seam on your template tee.

Match up the sleeves and cut the two sleeves together.  Since we did the upper part of the dress, this shouldn't be a problem.  At this point, I usually put a mark at the top of the sleeve to use as a guide when matching the sleeve to the top of the arm hole.  Pin the sleeves into the arm holes and sew in place with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Match up the sides, center and pin the skirt to the top of the dress.  If your skirt portion is significantly larger, you'll have to stretch it to fit the upper.  Since we're working with knit, it should be a problem.  When I did mine, I avoided stretch at the sides by pinning it straight for about two inches on either side of the side seams.  This is a personal preference.  Sew the skirt with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Here is my finished t-shirt dress.  No hemming required since we used the finished hems from the sacrificial tees.  I found a great video for this on YouTube.  Check out Dodger's video.