Sunday, May 30, 2010

Buy a Tee Shirt; Add a Circle (and a little trim)

She wanted an "American Flag" dress.

Tee shirt 50% off at Kohl's - $6.00.

Cut off the tail of the tee shirt to waist length plus seam allowance (or you could cut hip length, for dropped waist styles, which might be even better).

Cut a circle the circumference of the tee shirt bottom. (See post below for details--and DON'T cut it too large!)

Measure the length you want the skirt to be, plus 3/8 - 1/2" at the top, and about 1/2" at the bottom for a rolled hem. I added 15-inches. Cut your big circle.

I used my Espire's rolled hem foot for the first time, sewed the skirt to the top, top-stitched the waist seam to the top for strength, and Bingo--it's a dress!


When it was finished, I thought the top looked a little "blank", but the shirt came with a narrow band across the chest--suggesting its own remedy!

So I added a little trim from the fabric over the existing band, by hand. You could do it on the machine, but it's a really narrow band of fabric on the store-bought shirt, so I wanted to do it by hand. It was not at all difficult.

It's a very quick and easy dress once you figure out the skirt. I made a pattern from the extremely light-weight gridded fabric that I use for designing and altering all the time. So making circle skirts for a Princess will be easy for quite some time!

[Ruler details below.]

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