When Dad passed away, he left behind an extensive collection of clothes. Way back then, I decided that I wanted to do something with a few of the shirts to make dresses for his granddaughters, who were aged newborn to toddler at the time. I thought and thought and pinned and pinned...and I knew that the right idea for those shirts would come to me, sooner or later. I have lots of ideas on my Pinterest board about what to do with a man's dress shirt, but none of them was quite right...until I realized I could use Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom's Peasant Dress & Tutorial. I had made three of them before, so I knew the dress was quick, easy, and cute! If you're here from Pinterest, welcome...and all the credit goes to Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom!
These shirts of my dad's were size 14 1/2 to size 15 1/2, so the sleeve piece had to be squeezed in a bit on some of them. Otherwise, though, it was very easy to cut the body of the dress from the body of the shirt, and cut the dress sleeves from the shirt sleeves. If you wanted to make a dress out of a larger shirt, you could probably make a long-sleeved dress, too.
This is the first one I made - the test. I used some scraps from fat quarters that I used on these dresses for Grace and her younger twin cousins, so this dress was almost free - I just bought some matching bias tape to make the casing for the elastic on the sleeves. (One thing I enjoyed on this pattern was making the casing out of contrasting bias tape and ribbon. I was pretty happy with how it looked, but I made some mistakes in its construction - nothing anyone can see, probably, but things I changed in the next dresses.
After my test dress, I got to work making the others. The top dress stayed with us, and these next two dresses went to Charlotte.
Each time I made one, Grace decided that it was her favorite and that she wanted to keep it.
For this dress, the ribbon that made the casing on the sleeves was an exact match with the fabric I used for the little ruffle.
This next dress stayed with us, too. I should mention that when my dad was buying his shirts, different colors were being manufactured than are in stores now. I had a terrible time finding anything to match with these peach stripes! Have you noticed there's nothing peachy out there right now? Not even ribbon. There is a green shirt that you don't see here because I couldn't find anything anywhere to match it. I had originally planned for the green dress to go to Charlotte. Anyway, it was a stretch, but I found something that worked for the bottom contrast panel, and I was able to use a scrap from those same fat quarter dresses for the ruffle.
These next four dresses went to Mary Ann and Darcy. By the time I made them, I had made a few more minor changes to the way I made the dresses, and they were turning out much better than the first ones. (Sorry, Charlotte and Grace!)
Grace liked how the silver bias tape matched the silver dots in the fabric.
I used ribbon for the casing on the sleeves and the stripe at the bottom of this dress.
These two yellow ones ended up being my favorites. I loved adding rick rack to the bottom of each of them. Each one was a bit different, but they still went together.
It was such a long process for me to find an idea that I loved for my dad's shirts that I decided to pin my post in hopes that it helps someone else. I hope that making his shirts into dresses will give all four girls a sweet and happy way to remember him. And they are pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Thanks again, Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom, for sharing your idea. I have used it a LOT! And, and edit: Here are a some pics of how the dresses look on her.
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