My Take on the T-Shirt Dress, another refashion

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE summer dresses?

I love how a dress can instantly take you from sweaty and frumpy to polished and presentable.

The more a dress feels like a t-shirt, the more I like it (and the more I wear it). I have one such dress that gets worn at least once a week. The colors are fading, but it is comfy and mama appropriate. I didn’t want to mess with the faded dress though. I had a fear of messing it up, and not having my summer staple anymore.

But alas, I did the next best thing….I made a new t-shirt dress.

This was a simple refashion. The base was a men's 2XL yellow t-shirt. (No, I didn’t get this one from hubby. I had to buy this one at Goodwill for $0.49!) The contrasting band was made from the sleeves leftover from this project.

First I carefully unpicked the pocket. Then I cut off the sleeves. I drew a trapezoid from the bottom hem to just under the neckline. I sewed these two pieces together at the sides to form the skirt.

Next I cut up the sleeves and sewed them into a tube. I did the same for the contrasting strip. Trim the excess from the tubes so they are even. Now, just sew the three tubes together, matching the side seams.

The straps aren’t my favorite. The only fabric left from the yellow tee was a long skinny strip. I cut a strip the same length from the grey shirt. Then I gave both strips a tug, to make them curl. Next I cut them in half.

I tried the dress on, and pinned the front of the straps over my bra. Then I sewed them down. Next twist the straps a few times, pin in the back, and sew.

Like I said, the straps aren’t my favorite. (Despite what it looks like in the picture, the straps are twisted evenly. I actually just went and rechecked.) I may change them down the road.

Now I have a second favorite summer dress.

Maybe I should do something to fix the faded one…..

What are your summer wardrobe staples? Like I said, nothing is more comfortable to me that a light dress in summer.

Refashioning the Basic Black Tank

My second refashion this month involved two tops.

The top on the left was one my mom bought for me when I was pregnant. It wasn’t an actual maternity top, but bloused out in the front like one. I try to avoid clothing that solicits the “When are you due?” question.
The top on the right is one I bought on clearance for $2.49. Just a basic black tank.
I loved the turquoise lace thing on the front of the blousy top, so I seam ripped that out. Next I sprayed it with quilt basting spray and stuck it onto the back of the tank.

You could probably skip this step, but I didn’t want to deal with any shifting. I also pinned it for good measure.
I took the tank over to my sewing machine. I dialed the machine’s speed down and took it nice and slow. Then I stitched on the outside edge of the insert with a straight stitch.

Here’s a view of the inside.

Here’s the outside after stitching. You can stop right here if you’d like. I had plans of wearing this tank on date night with the hubby, so I wanted to give it a little more va-va-voom.
I carefully cut out the tank under the lace close to the stitch line.

Much better! I am so glad I was able to incorporate that turquoise insert somewhere. I love the color paired with the black tank.
What do you think, did you like it better before or after the back was cut out?
Are you refashioning along? If so leave a link in the comments, I’d love to see what you are up to!

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