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FREE sewing tutorial: how to turn an xxl-shirt into a dress

10/25/2013

23 Comments

 
--- UPDATE 12/3/13: I made another dress with embellished sleeves and a belt, and lengthened it with cotton fabric. You can find this blog post here.
For your convenience I decided to offer the complete tutorial as a PDF for download for only $2, if you prefer to have everything in one structured document ---
charmed Liebling knit dress



Another one of my sewing projects is done! A friend of mine had this really big t-shirt and she asked me if I could turn it into a dress for her. This was a really nice opportunity to use my serger again and was easier than I thought.

I had my friend give me one of her knit dresses that fit her well so that I would have some reference for measuremens. I put the xxl-shirt flat onto my sewing table and her dress above, so I could see where her shoulder seams and side seam would have to be. Then I marked everything with a fabric marker. You can see how I folded the sleeve to the side so that I could trace it exactly. The nice thing about knit fabrics is you don't even need to put in darts or pleats to make it fit. Simply let it slightly taper down to the waist.
I only did the tracing on one side of the shirt.
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
(Before proceeding I already cut the sleeves of. These will have to be adjusted in size later. )
Then it was time to cut off the additional fabric on that side. This is always the part the makes me a little most. After all, this is not my own shirt. Don't want to mess up now.
I simply folded the shirt in half and traced the other side with a fabric marker as well. This way I made sure both sides are even.
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
Using your serger (if you have a regular sewing machine you can use a stretch stitch) sew both side edges together again, right sides together.

For the new sleeves I actually looked through my paper patterns and took a sleeve pattern piece from a knit dress that seemed to be perfect to be used for the new sleeves. If you want to make sure the sleeve fits exactly into the armhole, measure the width of the armhole and adjust the width of the sleeve before cutting.
You can also go with a wider sleeve and gather it a little at the rounded top edge like you normally do, especially when sewing with cotton fabrics (e. g. a blouse). The only thing you want to avoid is having the width of the sleeve be smaller then the width of the armhole.
I took one of the shirt sleeves that I had cut off, folded my paper pattern piece in half and put it on top, the opening of both pieces matching. Then I traced around the paper sleeve and cut along this line.
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial



With your serger or using a stretch stitch on your regular sewing machine, sew the sleeve together again at its short bottom edges. Repeat for the second sleeve.

Put the first sleeve into one of the armholes, right sides together. Both seams of sleeve and shirt should match. Use a lot of pins to keep the sleeve in place. I measured mine to fit exactly into the opening without having to gather the sleeve fabric.
Then stitch around the sleeve.
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
Repeat for the second sleeve and the other side of the shirt.

charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
Almost done, the only thing I wanted to alter as well was the neckline. It was very small and wouldn't really look good on this dress.
I cut off the neck trim to make the neckline bigger, then simply folded it down to the wrong side by approx. 1 cm (3/8") and used lots of pins to hold everything in place.  Using my regular sewing machine and a twin needle I stitch all along the neckline.

charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
charmed Liebling shirt to dress tutorial
And that is it already! I hope my friend will enjoy her new dress. I have to say I liked her idea so much that I am thinking about making a dress like this for myself as well. I even have an idea of what shirt to use...

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment. Have you made a similar project? I would love to know :)
Bild
23 Comments
Christine Welsh link
10/25/2013 09:55:35 am

What a great idea....I have a couple of HUGE tshirts which may finally get put to use! LOL

Reply
Anna
10/26/2013 01:45:19 am

Thanks Christine! I am still trying to find out a good way to lengthen the shirt after making it into a dress. The one for my friend is fine but I am just too tall. Don't want to show too much if you know what I mean LOL!

Reply
Sadie Mungro
11/26/2013 03:33:20 am

I love this idea! To lengthen, why not add a layer or two of ruffles at the bottom. You may need to buy two shirts to have enough material.

Reply
Anna
11/26/2013 06:46:42 am

That is definitely a good idea Sadie, thank you! :)

Geminisue
12/20/2014 03:49:08 am

A contrasting solid colored t shirt can be used at the waist line, this is very popular now.

Reply
Norma link
10/26/2013 03:33:58 am

Cool idea! This might work for my 23 year old daughter. She's small and I'm sure some T-shirts can make great dresses even if they are jammies or for lounging in the house.

Reply
Anna
10/27/2013 11:45:14 pm

I am glad you like this tutorial Norma! For someone who is not too tall this really works well. Or your daughter could also wear it as sort of a tunic dress over a pair of jeans?

Reply
alegria link
11/23/2013 08:17:33 am

I'm going to try this. thank's

Reply
Anna
11/23/2013 11:45:17 pm

Thanks Alegria, glad you like this idea!

Reply
Rosellen Ralph link
11/26/2013 04:10:26 am

Good idea and great tut!

Reply
Dell Culver
11/26/2013 04:36:15 am

Great tutorial... Another idea for lengthening might be to cut the t-shirt horizontally under the bust or at the waist and add a few inches with a cotton lace or ribbon insert. Matching or contrasting color.

Reply
Anna
11/26/2013 06:52:03 am

I am glad you like my tutorial :) Thanks for your suggestion, this sounds like a great idea as well!

Reply
Jacqui
11/29/2013 08:48:09 am

My daughter-in-law said yesterday that she was going to go through my younger son's tee shirts and send to op shop as he has far too many. My older son has 2 daughters 11 and 13 yo. I'm sure they'd love dresses made from some of their uncle's tee shirts. I think I'll show them how to do it themselves (Nan bonding).
When I make Tee shirts or knit dresses with sleeves, I sew the sleeve in before sewing the side seam of the garment and just sew sleeve seam and side seam in one go. It's easier than fitting the sleeve in. Jacqui

Reply
Margaret Reid
3/19/2015 12:40:25 pm

Thanks for the tip Jacqui....../makes perfect sense.

Reply
Anna
12/1/2013 11:09:33 am

What a great idea Jacqui! As soon as I make another one of these dresses I have to try your method, sewing the sleeves first and then the side seams. It's sounds a lot easier :) Thank you!

Reply
Meg link
6/16/2014 10:32:18 pm

Cute and feminine-thanks

Reply
Anna
6/16/2014 11:48:25 pm

Thank you very much Meg!

Reply
Khadiza
6/19/2014 04:04:32 pm

Wow, nice idea. I'll try with the tees of my 8.5 years daughter for my 2.5 years daughter.

Reply
Anna
6/20/2014 12:11:20 am

Nice idea Khadiza! Thanks for your comment, glad you like this tutorial :)

Reply
samantha link
12/13/2014 04:00:06 am

You did nice job on tee shirt conversion to dress
An idea for extending your length at hemline is to take another tee shirt in same or contrasting tee knit material and cut off a strip of fabric in length and width desired to go around your tee dress.

Reply
Anna
12/15/2014 12:20:58 am

Thanks for the tip Samantha,
that is a very good idea!

Reply
Carole Kalmes
1/3/2015 07:47:01 am

I made several girls Christmas dresses with basically the same idea. I found adult tshirts with Christmas designs at a resale shop and then cut them down to child size. The length was fine for size 4 and 6. A Sewing with Nancy segment showed using clear elasting under the neckline turndown to help keep its shape. It makes it look more professional.

Reply
Margaret Reid
3/19/2015 12:37:15 pm

I looked at this post once before and have since held up several men's shirts with your project in mind. I'm only 5'3" but still would prefer a little more length then when I was younger. It looks like a man's 4x or 5x would give me the length I'm looking for. Ladies, go to the thrift store or check out the clearance rack at Giant Tiger/ Target/ etc. We're talking about YARDS of material for as little as a couple dollars. '

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    Welcome to my blog! I am an accountant who once started out her "career" in the US by designing bag and wallet sewing  patterns! My patterns are available on Etsy and occasionally I will share some of my sewing projects that I work on in my spare free time on my website.  Happy sewing :)

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