Free Craft Project

Shirt Dress

This shirt dress sewing project is courtesy of Brenna Ballard from Modern Crafting.

If you have basic sewing skills you shouldn't have any difficulty putting one of these shirt dresses together.

Materials

• 2 men's button-down shirts
• 1/4" elastic
• straight pins
• seam ripper
• scissors
• tape measure
• sewing machine

Instructions

For the purpose of these instructions, the blue shirt will be the top of the dress and the white shirt will be bottom.

Step 1

Using the seam ripper, remove the pockets from both shirts.

Step 2

Take a measurement from the top of your shoulder to your waist and add 1/2" to that measurement. Using pins, mark that same measurment on both sides of the blue shirt.

Step 3

Fold the blue shirt in half lengthwise. Cut across where you placed the pins, angling up slightly at the side of the shirt.

Step 4

Position the blue shirt onto the white shirt so that the bottom button of the blue shirt is over a button that is closest to and just below the armpit of the white shirt. Following the bottom edge of the blue shirt, cut across the white shirt from one side to the other.

Step 5

Measure your waist and add 4". You'll want the bottom edge of the blue shirt to match this measurement. This can be accomplished by cutting some of the fabric from the sides of the blue shirt and/or adding darts along the "waistline".

removing fabric from sides

If you have to cut fabric from the sides of the shirt, you'll need to re-seam and match it from the waist up to the armpit.

making darts

On the bottom edge of the blue shirt, mark points 4" on either side of center, both front and back. Fold to create a 1-inch dart and pin in place. Measure 8 inches up from there to mark the top point of the dart. Sew from the bottom to the top. Repeat for the other 3 darts.

Step 6

Cut 1/4" elastic to match the measurement of the bottom edge of the blue shirt. Fold the elastic in half and mark the center point with a pin. Pin elastic to the top of the blue shirt with the open ends of the elastic matching up with the open ends of the shirt (where the front buttons are).

Find the center back of the top of the white shirt and pin the center of the elastic to that point of the shirt. Starting from the open end, sew the elastic to the top of the white shirt, stretching as you go.

 

Step 7

Place the blue and white pieces on the cut edges (right sides facing each other). Match up the side seams and sew the 2 pieces together.

Step 8

Iron the seams. Add a belt to give your new shirt dress an even classier look.