How To Make An Easy Dress (For Cheap!) Two facts about me: I'm cheap. I love dresses. I wear dresses probably 6 days out of the week. It's not that I one day just decided to wear dresses to feel cute and girly. Far from it. Back in November when I really started Talk2thetrees I kinda just wore pajama pants and sweat pants. Dresses are so comfortable, I can sit around the house and feel comfortable and cute. The only problem.. they are expensive! Here is a tutorial on a High Waisted Dress: For under 6 bucks! First you will need a ribbed tank top. I got mine from Walmart for 2.50 You could also use a t-shirt 3 yards of matching fabric. Clearance section is my favorite.
Cut the tank top almost in half. (I cut mine a little too short.. oops!) For the bottom part of your dress take the fabric and wrap it around your waist about 1 and a half times, and cut in a straight line. I never measure, I never use patterns... Next you fold your fabric in half. You have kind of a big blocky rectangle skirt. We are going to create a ruffle. Michael ann made.: men's shirt to dress refashion.
The mr and i spent most of the weekend being busy and getting ready for our road trip down to california later this week, and i was able to finish up a men's shirt refashion that i've had on my project list for too long! Before: giant chambray men's shirt thrifted for $2 after: simple summer dress! Don't you love it when an idea turns out even better in real life than you imagined? I have been craving an easy summer dress project for some time and found the perfect, super large shirt while thrifting with the mr a couple weeks ago. i cut off the sleeves and the collar, leaving just the collar band. i also took off the pocket because it looked a little funny down near my waist... then i slimmed down the sides to fit loose so it would gather cute with a belt. when i tried it on, the shoulders turned out to be long enough to be little cap sleeves!
So i just finished them at the bottom of the armholes to be kimono sleeves, easy peasy. 3 Stitch Summer Dress. Yet another Kitty dress tutorial! You know if I was able to do it, then it is super easy! Only 3 stitches needed, and minimal measuring! If you can sew a pillow- you can sew this :) First I found this fabric at Goodwill. I originally bought it for the my table cover at the farmers market, but now that the summer is ending...what better idea than to make a fun floral summer dress!
Here are the very basic instructions. Yeah, not super detailed but there really isnt much to it! Extra tips: I guessed on the amount of fabric. The hem for the elastic- I folded over twice to make sure it would be secure and not unravel. Make sure your elastic is tight around your chest. You may not even need to hem the bottom. Of course I've got to give GmaV alot of the credit- she is the sewing master around here. Thanks to my new years resolution not to purchase clothes- I've been learning all kinds of dress tips and tricks!
Women’s Skirt with Yoga Style Waist Band. Did you see the little yoga waistband skirt that I made for my little girl a few weeks ago (found here)? Well, after she slipped that on, I got jealous. Like completely jealous. The skirt is so light and airy…….and that waist band. Ahhhhh, I was smitten with that waistband. Oh, and I love a nice light skirt for summer. (I have about 5 of the Lily style skirts from my pattern shop in my closet for the hot weather. So I made one for me. If I would have made it in time, this skirt would have been fabulous for maternity wear too. And I can’t wait to get some great use out of her over the next 6 months. And the skirt is about knee length on me (maybe a tad longer)…….but on this body form, it looks mid-calf. The waistband is nice and tall and can be worn up or down (you know, in case you have a pregnant belly) and really elongates that waistline…..if you need some elongating. :).
I made this skirt from some jersey knit that I got at a random fabric store in Atlanta a while ago. And that’s it. The Upcycled ruffles dress tutorial. So this past week was pretty bad blog-wise, my blog and website got attacked with malware. My feed was having issues and subscribers seemed to banish. Happily most of it is fixed now and I am happy to be able to blog again (I didn’t wanted to post anything until I was 100% sure the malware was completely cleaned) And if you saw my site down, that was the reason =] I had this post saved from weeks!
So finally here it is! A few weeks a go I showed you all how this dress turn out (I previously asked for color advice) and it’s finally time for a tutorial so you can also try it out! To make this dress I used Ken’s old sleeveless T-shirts and some fabric leftovers from a project I did years a go – Actually I was researching if those kind of shirts had a special name here because in Chile they are call “musculosas” because guys wear them to showoff their arms. Anyways, you will need either one long sleeveless T-shirt or 2 short ones. [Click on images to enlarge]