Another T-shirt Transformation

Last year I got the girls some cute Halloween tights on clearance, only to realize this year that they have nothing to wear with them.

So, the other day at CVS I bought one XL t-shirt for $2.

When I was done with it, it looked like this:

And now my girls look like this:

Squee! (Can I say how much I love having two little girls, one long skinny and one short roly-poly? They are so cute together I can hardly stand it.)

Unfortunately, I was too excited putting them together to make a photo tutorial, but I'll tell you how to turn a big t-shirt into one (or two) little dresses:

You need:

1 big t-shirt (long enough for the dress, plus a little more)

thread

1 button

loose-fitting child shirt and knee-length child dress to use as a patterns

Cutting:

1. Cut one 2-inch-high strip off the bottom of the shirt, going all around

2. Cut one 1-inch-high strip off the bottom of the shirt

3. Lay the pattern shirt on top of the t-shirt, towards the top, and fold the sleeves in. Lay the pattern dress on top to make sure there's enough room to make it long enough (once you put the ruffle on, it will add a couple of inches)

4. Take the dress off (you've already measured the length) and cut 1/2 inch around your pattern, extending the length to the dress's length. DO NOT CUT SEAM ALLOWANCE AROUND NECKLINE. You now have a front and back to the dress.

5. Fold one sleeve of your fabric-shirt in half. Lay pattern sleeve on top of it and carefully cut out around, including seam allowance (this should make 2 already-hemmed sleeves, since the fabric is doubled)

6. From remaining fabric, cut strip 1" x 7.5" ("finishing strip")

Sewing (1/4 inch seams - you made your allowance bigger on purpose):

1. Facing right sides, sew shoulder seams. Leave sides open.

2. Facing right sides, pin open sleeves to arm holes, and sew (this will be pretty easy since the sides are open)

3. Facing right sides, pin dress sides and sleeves together and sew all the way up the dress. Your basic dress shape is done!

4. Gather or ruffle both 2-inch and 1-inch strip 1/4 from raw edge

5. Pin 2-inch ruffle to front of the bottom of the dress, sew (it's already hemmed, yippee!)

6. Cut 2-inch slit down from the neck in the back of the dress. Pin 1-inch ruffle around the neckline (going down a little lower in the front), sew. Trim seam as needed

Button hole: Pin finishing strip to back of slit, and sew 1/4 inch in all the way down both sides (it should stick up 1 1/2 inches on one side). Flip strip around and fold in, stitch all the way down, including on sticking up part. Flip extra around to form loop, and then stitch. Add button on the other side. Finished product should look like this:

To make 2 dresses, I just cut more strips off the bottom of the shirt initially, and positioned the patterns so I could cut 2 dress bodies. I also ended up cutting all the sleeves from 1 sleeve of fabric (I wasn't sure yet if I'd need the other for something else). It means I had to hem the sleeves and ruffle on Carmen's dress, but not a big deal.

Knit's very forgiving, so go ahead and try it! You know you want to...