Tank Top to Summer Dress Refashion

This is a simple refashion of a tank top to a summer dress for Dress A Girl Around The World and inspired by tutorials on that blog.

Items used:

• Tank Top
• 1 1/2 yards of fabric (for a girl's size 14 - 23 inches around - wider if a fuller skirt is desired)
• Thread
• Scissors
• Straight Pins
• 1/4 yard iron on interfacing  
• Iron 

To decide where to cut I folded the top in half then cut in the middle.

Turn inside out and cut a piece of interfacing approximately 3 inches wide and the length of the tank top on each side and iron on.  It is to help prevent the skirt from stretching out knit in the tank top.

For the skirt, I used the selvage edge as the bottom of the skirt so no need to hem it and measured up 28 inches and cut across.

Then added a gathering stitch 1/4 and 1/2 inch away from the top edge beginning 5/8 of in inch end on each side leaving long tails to be able to gather the fabric.

With right sides together, pin then stitch a seam down the back and pin the seam in the center in back then pin and gather then stitch 5/8 an inch away from the edge.   Turn right side out, clip any loose threads and your new tank dress is complete.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and happy crafting:)

Girl's "Froggy" Dress from a T-Shirt

This is another variation of the "Warhol Dress" by Dana from "Made" that I am making for donation to Dress A Girl Around The World, a non-profit organization that distributes the dresses to little girls around the world that do not have any.  I was able to complete this dress in around 3 hours watching television and the cost to make was under $3.

• Free pattern and instructions from Dana from "Made"
• Printer and paper
• T-Shirt (Women's large-had been a promotional t-shirt for a local radio station "Froggy 106.7")
• 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric
• Iron on rose (optional)
• Scissors
• Iron
• Sewing machine and thread 
• Straight pins
• Saftey Pin (for turning the tie inside out)

I started out with the t-shirt and I folded it in half, making sure the design was centered.

I used the base dress pattern and added 1/2 inch to each side to make it a Size 3-4.  Instead of positioning the pattern at the bottom and using the t-shirt hem as the hem of the dress, I positioned it as close to the neckline as I could as I wanted to use the design on the t-shirt.  I pinned through all layers and cut out the dress and marked the gathering lines with a slight cut at the edge.

I stitched the gathering lines and gathered and pressed under at the armholes 1/2 inch and top stitched in place using contrasting green thread as indicated in the original instructions.

Another modification made was instead of sewing the ties directly to the dress I sewed a piece of the contrasting fabric that was 3 inches tall and around 1/2 inch shorter than width of the dress (1/2 seam allowance).


I turned the edges under on each side and turned the edge under 1/4 of an inch under on the open edge and pressed under and pressed the seam up toward the contrasting fabric.  I pinned the pressed edge to the edge of the seam from the top side and top stitched along the edge on the front side catching the fabric underneath.

For the ties, I cut two pieces of fabric 26 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide of the contrasting fabric.  I sewed the two pieces, right sides together, using 1/2 inch seam.  I then pressed in half, right sides together and sewed along the edge using 1/2 inch seam and used a safety pin to turn right sides out.

I then threaded each edge through the opening at the left shoulder of the dress and the bow is tied on the right.

For the ruffle at the hem I cut two pieces - both 3 inches tall; one was the length of the fabric, 44 inches and another was 16 inches for a total of 60 inches for the ruffle.

First I pressed a hem up 1/2 inch from the bottom edge and stitched 1/4 of an inch from the edge.

Next,  I made a gathering stitch the entire length up to 1/2 inch away from each edge and gathered the material.  Then, right sides together, stitch the piece together.

Then, pinning with the seam at one edge of the dress, right sides together, evening out the gathers, pin then stitched 1/2 inch from the edge all the way around.

As I noticed there was a slight imperfection below the logo when it was completed, I decided to use an iron-on rosette that I purchased at Walmart that was on clearance for 50 cents as it reminded me a bit of a lilly pad, even thought it is red.

I do have some other craft projects in the works, but have been focusing on the dresses as I plan to mail them out in bulk to Dress A Girl Around The World.




Linking up to:

T Shirt To Argyle Drop Waist Dress

See T Shirt To Argyle Drop Waist Dress and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

This is for http://30daysofcreativity.com/ and the theme was "Argyle" so I decided to turn a toddler t-shirt into a dress for http://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/howyoucanhelp.htm, which is a non-profit organization that accepts donations of homemade dresses for little girls around the world who don't have one.

As I had only seen Argyle in solid colors before I decided to try with print fabric and stitching instead and attached a skirt in coordinating fabric, putting a decorative black stitch at the hem.  It was simple and fun to make.

I have posted a tutorial over at Cut Out + Keep