DIY Maternity Dress: Upcycled Men's t-shirt

Here's another DIY Maternity project from one of my Goodwill finds! I forgot to do a "before" picture (got a little too excited with the scissors) but the skirt is made from an extra large Mens t-shirt I got for $3.50. I have had the tank top for FOREVER (before I was married 6 years ago) and recently only wore it for pj's, so it got a new life with this dress too. I made the belt for another dress and it works perfectly with this color combo. 

I followed this tutorial for the dress. I have actually made a TON of two-fer dresses (I mean, I have a whole category on my blog for two-fer creations) but this tutorial was really clever. The unique thing about this dress IS using the men's t-shirt for the skirt because men's t-shirts are longer in the back than in the front. So, as my belly grows, the hem should stay (relatively) even. Clever, right? 

 As you can see, I should have yanked my skirt down a little bit in the back for the picture (darn my big caboose) but the front IS longer than the back. My 15 week bump is still pretty little right now but as it grows, the hem *should* round out nicely. 

I don't think I'll be able to wear it for the whole 9 months (I didn't use the elastic for the waist like in the tutorial [though I did use the stretch stitch on my machine to ensure that I wouldn't pop stitches as I grew] because my fabric wasn't wide enough--in fact, I was worried for a few minutes that t-shirt wouldn't be big enough) but I think it will be good for the end of spring/beginning of summer months.

I love how the dress turned out! It is really comfortable and will be good for hotter days by itself, or for cool, wet days (like today) with a cardigan and leggings. 

The Birthday Twofer Dress!

Yesterday was my 27th birthday! I have realized that as an adult, it is up to me to make my birthday special so I planned a dinner out, picked a movie to watch after the kiddos went to bed ("The King's Speech" VERY good btw!) and made myself a new dress!

 Paired with cute round-toed brown pumps, this little dress and I were ready to take on my birthday. I had a great day!

How to Sew a Twofer dress: Take 3

My previous two posts on "How to sew a Twofer Dress" have generated the most google hits in my blog history. WOW! Who would have thought? I have been wanting to make some new twofer dresses for a while a-a-a-a-n-d.....

Here is my latest creation! I absolutely love it! I randomly stumbled across this awesome tutorial  by Maybe Matilda a few weeks ago and have been so excited to make a new dress for myself. PLUS, I got a new sewing machine for my birthday/graduation/anniversary present (according my to my husband!). It is a Janome 1000 Heavy Duty machine. 

And this twofer dress was its maiden project. It went off without a hitch! I didn't have to pull out my seam ripper once! :o (Amazing, truly!). 

 Maybe Matilda's tutorial is so easy to follow but I will give you the general breakdown of what I did. The skirt is just a rectangle that has in-seam pockets (I actually sewed them a little too low...oh well). I followed the genius advice of Maybe Matilda and only gathered the fabric in the front and back--not on the sides, thus reducing fullness in the hips. A BIG plus in my book as I am, um, curvy, shall we say. 

The only thing I changed about this dress was the waist tie. I LOVE the bow that the original has but my material was too bulky to tie in a nice bow. (in Aaron's words: "I hate the bow" And I had to agree). So I looped the long sash around my waist twice and tied it in a nice neat knot in the front. Perfect!!

I love the high waisted look! It is so slimming and hides my belly left over from pregnancy (or that's what I keep telling myself...it really just just my excuse because I don't exercise like I should!)

I adore the final result and the best part is...this little number only took me about 2 hours to complete--including hand sewing the hem. 

Go ahead! Make a twofer dress for yourself. 

And stay tuned for more twofer creations from your truly in the near future. :) 

The TINY two-fer dress

Here is my version of a TINY two-fer dress. I made it out of a 0-3 month onesie and a t-shirt. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. It is so sweet and so tiny! My favorite part is the bloomers--ruffle butt! AWWW! I hope Chelsea and my new little niece love them!

Before: Cute little orange and white striped onesie

Before: T-shirt that ended up in our luggage when we came home from camp (weird, but free material for me!!!)

AFTER! Sweet little two-fer dress with bloomers!

The bloomers have elastic to hold them up and....

RUFFLES!! AHH! So, so cute! 

The "Little" Two-fer dress

My sister Chelsea is expecting her first baby in October--a GIRL! The first one in the family (there are 5 grandsons right now). I wanted to make her some clothes so here are my attempts at "refashioning" for a baby. I love how this outfit turned out!

The top "before"--one of the boys' onesies (I used the bottom to make a pair of underwear for the boys)

The bottom "before"--a skirt that wasn't quite my style

AFTER! Isn't it cute? It will probably fit 9-12 months

I "feminized" the sleeves a bit by shortening them and adding a  cuff made out of the skirt material

How to sew a Twofer dress- Take 2

I made another twofer dress! I made this one a little differently and it turned out so cute! I attempted to take some pictures showing "how" I made it. Enjoy! I am loving my new outfit!

First, I cut a "pattern" out of wrapping paper. I cut pockets for this dress! The long side of the pattern is placed on the fold. Cut two, but cut the back piece about 6-8 inches wider than the front.

After sewing the side with the pocket.

The pocket opening, right side out

I sewed pleats on the front of the skirt so that it fit the front of my waist and the pockets sat on my hips

Imagine this picture horizontally. I shirred the back of the skirt so that it fit snuggly but I could still get into the dress. This actually was some trial and error. I actually had to rip out the seam from the waist to top of the pocket so I could sew about 8 rows of shirring. Then I resewed the seam from the pocket to the waist.

Next, sew the shirt to the skirt. I tried it on before I did this and marked where I wanted the skirt to sit with tailors chalk. Then I safety pinned the two pieces together and sewed. Be sure to stretch the shirred part of the skirt to fit the shirt so that it is nice and stretchy and easy to get on and off.

I sewed a sash and then hand sewed it to the dress. This took a little while but it was worth it. I ended the hand sewing where the shirring started.

Here is how the sash looks in the back. I just untie it in order to get into/ out of the dress.

The finished product!

I paired it with my boots the first time I wore it and I got a lot of compliments. I love these dresses. I have plans to make a few more for the summer.

How to make a Twofer dress

Ug! I felt like I was drowning in grading and emailing students this week. So, that said, I either wanted to do one of two things: shop for new clothes, or sew something cute. Since money is a bit on the tight side, and I was feeling extra creative, I decided on the later. Enter the "twofer" dress!

What is a "twofer" dress, you ask? Well, it is dress that looks like a skirt and blouse combo. I am a daily (and I mean daily) stalker of modcloth and I drool over their dresses. I find the twofer dresses especially cute, but since I don't have $50+ bucks to shell out over every dress I crave, I decided to try and sew my own.

I made a quick trip to Joann's yesterday afternoon before class an picked out some fabrics that coordinated with a knit shirt from my closet. And JOY! Joann's was having a sale! I got my fabric (1.5 yard for the skirt and 1/2 yard for the belt) for only a little over $7! Add a few spools of thread (also on sale!) and some tailors chalk, my grand total for this project was $10.02!!! WOOT!

So, here is what I did. I first measured my waist and then the distance from my natural waist (where I wanted the skirt to sit) to my knee.

Then I made a really long belt (basically a long tube that I sewed, turned, and sewed the ends in a diagonal)

I then cut two rectangles of fabric for the skirt: width = 2 inches shorter than the circumference of my waist (26") and then the length = the distance from my waist to my knee (25" but I ended up shortening this a lot when I hemmed)

I hemmed the top of each skirt piece and then did eight rows of shirring (see last summer's blog on making an Easy Summer Dress) on each piece. I then sewed each the skirt pieces together (right sides together).

I then sewed the skirt to the shirt. This took a bit of creativity and help from my BFF Candace. She stretched the skirt for me while I safety pinned the shirt to the skirt. After sewing the shirt to the skirt, we hemmed the dress to right at the top of my knee (I just machine sewed the hem).

I tried on the dress and tied the belt in a big, sassy bow! The whole project took me about 3.5 hours and VOILA! Twofer dress! I love it!

A close of up the yummy fabrics! I love this color combo!

This dress is so comfortable! The shirring keeps it close to the body but it is easy to get on and off because of the stretch. I wore my dress today and got a lot of compliments. I have a brown shirt that is the same style as the tourquoise one and I think I am going to make another dress sometime soon!