Men's Shirt Refashion Tutorial {Dress Sewn for $6}

I made this dress in a couple of hours for just $6.

 

Talk about a lucky score!  I found a stash of enormous men's dress shirts at the Salvation Army for $2 a piece.  I grabbed four of them in this pretty, robin's egg blue color, and another four in a soft, buttery yellow.

I normally repurpose men's shirts into aprons like these (click here for details in a prior blog post):

 

 

...But decided to give dress-making a go this time.

I started by taking one shirt and narrowed the sleeves and bodice:

I picked the pocket off of a second shirt...

...Then cut it in half, just below the arms:

I baste stitched along the cut line then pulled the threads to gather it:

Then stitched closed the button placket:

I pinned the gathered shirt to the first shirt and sewed them together.

 

I topped stitched the waist, where the bodice meets the skirt:

 

 

The dress was complete.  Until I tried it on and realized it was way too short (at 5' 10" this is a very common problem for me!).  So, I took a third shirt and cut several inches off the bottom...

...And pinned it underneath the hem of the dress.  Following the hemline of the dress, I top stitched the pieces together and stitched down the button placket of the third shirt.

Dog walking on a sunny spring day was the perfect excuse for donning my new dress.  Notice Twyla's collar corsage?  Click here for the blog post on how I made it.

 

Oh, and why wear just one pearl necklace when you can pile on 7?!

 

I love it when I can elicit a big eye roll from Captain Project!