Nayna's Latest Sewing Creation

I posted on Thrifty Like That about making a maxi dress out of a shirt and buying material to make the skirt. These turned out well and I like how comfortable, modest, and cheap inexpensive they are.

At Goodwill we found a tank dress that was in excellent shape for $4, but of course, immodest with no sleeves. Then on another trip we found a shirt for $3 that I thought was cute, but short and too low in the front. However, the two together would make a fabulous dress!

Sorry I did not get photos of every step. She was moving so quickly and done in about an hour so I forgot to remind her to stop and take pictures. (None of my kids like to be in pictures so they avoid it like the plague.)

Step One
Remove the bottom of the shirt with a seam ripper. One of the good features about this shirt that Nayna liked was the band before the bottom of the shirt flared out. So, she removed the bottom of the shirt, keeping the band intact.

Tank dress on top of shirt. You can see it is too long and low. 

Step Two
We had to shorten the dress a little as it was too long. We simply took about an inch off of the tank dress straps, which also pulled the neck-line up to an acceptable level and allowed Nayna to use that to look like an undershirt. To decide how much length to remove in the dress, we put them on together and then pinned the straps to the right length. She then sewed the strap across at the right length and removed the excess fabric.

Determining the length of the tank dress straps.

Step Three
We needed to attach the shirt to the dress. We decided to pin the shirt to the right place and then fold the skirt of the dress back over the top, sewing three layers of fabric, dress-shirt-dress, using about a 1/4 inch seem allowance because that was what was left from removing the bottom of the shirt. I hope that makes sense. (I wish we had pictures of that part - sorry!)

Pinning the shirt onto the dress with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Wallah! That was it...no hemming or other steps because the dress is already hemmed. She was done in about an hour and has a pretty, comfortable dress.

Finished Project!