Re-Purposing: Girl’s Dress

Ready for a new re-purposing project? I grabbed a too short knit shirt of mine that I used to wear with a linen skirt of mine.

And combined the two….to create a new little creation for this little Miss.

Wowza…...such a big girl!

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With a cute pleated detail at the top…

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And a matching pleat along the bottom.

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Warning: May cause dancing outbursts.

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Can you believe that was my old knit shirt? Thanks to the GAP for creating a shirt that will now last through the two of us.

I constructed the top half of the dress, just like the sweater dress here. I used this blue shirt on top as a guide for how wide to make it and the size of the neck hole.

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But I made it longer than that little blue shirt. About mid-thigh. (The length of the finished shirt is totally up to you and the size of your little girl…)

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Then I created some sleeves from the sleeves of the original shirt and put it all together. (I didn’t have to hem the sleeves or the neck-line because I used the original hems of the shirt.)

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Then I cut off 6-8 inches or so of the skirt, to create the pleats around the bottom.

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**Next I folded down the top of the material a 1/4 inch and then another 1/4 inch and hemmed it in place.

Then I folded the material every few inches or so to create pleats, and pinned it into place. I had to adjust a few times to make the width of this material the same width as the bottom of the black material.

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Then I pressed the pleats nice and flat. Next, I attached this section to the bottom of the black material by laying it right on top. Then I sewed a seam about 1/4 of an inch down (maybe a 1/3 of an inch) from the top of the pleated section. And then another seam a 1/4 inch below that, to make it nice and secured to the dress.

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Then, I cut a strip of fabric that was about 5 x 12 inches and hemmed under all of the raw edges.

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And then I created pleats all the way down.

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Next, I attached this little pleated strip to the front of the shirt with a couple of seams, making it nice and secure.

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And then I added buttons on top of that.

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Whew, all done.

And happy as a clam.

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