Refashion Man's Tee to Sparky Dress

Here's the part-2 of the quickly T-shirt refashion project. On demand from the other sister.

I use a XL size Man's T-shirt for this. This project is also quite simple but it involve some cutting but I reuse the sleeve, neckline binding and the hem of the T-shirt. Let's jump in the tutorial shall we?

First, get a T-shirt larger than your pattern piece. You can also use knit if you have.  You can also use an existing kids t-shirt for the pattern but I just use the pattern piece from the Racerback dress from Crafterhours.  Fold the t-shirt into half and place your pattern along the fold.

I've place the pattern flush to the bottom of the shirt so that I can use the existing hem.  I didn't curve up the hem so I can use the hem in totality.  Cut out the pattern on fold and you will get both the Front and Back in one cut! Don't forget to cut the back neckline higher cause I forgot to do that and my front and back looks the same! Then, cut off the bodice and skirt so that you can later attach the sparky skirt. Length of skirt will depend how long you like. Just make sure it is the same length of slightly shorter than the sparky skirt.

Lay the sleeve flat and cut out the sleeve for the dress. I didn't use any pattern for us but just eyeball it. I  more of less follow the existing shape of the t-shirt. Be sure to cut the sleeve at the hem so that you can save hemming the sleeve too!

Cut out both sleeves and also the neckline ribbing of the existing t-shirt.

Then, following the steps to sew the bodice:
1) pin the shoulder seams right side facing and sew/serge shoulder seams
2) pin sleeve to arm sync, right side facing and sew/serge sleeves
3) pin underarm seams and side seams, right side facing and sew/serge underarm and side seams
4) as my neckline is much bigger, I use my serger to gather the neckline and then attach the ribbing using my serger, right side facing

For the skirts, just follow the previous tutorial. In a nutshell, cut the sparky fabric and sew into tube. Gather the skirt and pin together with the underskirt and elastic loop. Take special care to ensure the skirts are facing the right direction. Serge and sew the skirts, elastic to the bodice at waistline.

See the nice gathers. I love my serger! I didn't hem my sparky skirt since it doesn't fray.

The new dress.

She LOVES her dress, so twirly and sparkly

Enjoy the photos of the Sparky girls in their sparky dresses!

 

Refashion Woman Tunic to Sparky Dress

I love sewing but really drag tracing and cutting out the pattern and fabric at times. So, to motivate myself to keep sewing, I turn to refashion of unwanted clothes.

So, I took an old tunic of mine and turn it into a sparky dress for my girl.

 

This whole project was super fast since I've kept the original sleeve and didn't waste any fabric.  The pale pink sparky skirt was made from the leftover fabric from my previous Barbie and the Musketeers costume. I have also used my serger throughout the whole project which is good cause I didn't have to change out my needle. Yap, I'm so lazy like that..

Here's how I diy..

First, let your kiddo wear the tunic and get a sensing on the amount to cut off.  I need to pull up the shoulder seams by 1" and narrow the sleeves too and that's about it.  I cut off the sleeves.

Mark 1" away from the sleeve under seams and just serge away the excess.  Using the twin needles option on my serger, I can sew and serge in one go. See the new under seams.

Take apart the portion below the waist of the tunic. My tunic has a high waist gathered skirt so it is just right to turn it into an underskirt since my sparky fabric is a bit sheer.

I cut out a rectangle from my sparky fabric using the entire width of the fabric and the length will depend how long you want the skirt. Then, sew the side seams, right side facing.  Using the serger, I'm able to sew and serge the raw edge.

Then, adjusting my serge to the longest stitch width and length and adjust the tension to 5-5-6-6 (pink, yellow, green, blue) if you are using brother serger or if not, just adjust the tension looser and you will get a gathered skirt in no time.  I gathered my sparky skirt and pin it to my underskirt at the waistline. Both skirts should be Right Side facing up. Distribute the gathers evenly.

Turn the skirt Wrong side out and insert the bodice (right side out) so that both the bodice and skirts have right side facing each other. Get it? I hope you are not lost here. Again, pin the bodice around the waistline to the 2 skirts. Be sure to match the side seams and get the front and back facing correctly!

Cut an elastic 1" smaller than your kid's waist (depending on the elastic, you will need to make sure it is snug but not too tight). My elastic is quite stretchy so I can do away by cutting it smaller. Sew the elastic into a loop and then pin them to the skirts along the waistline.

Then, the fun and strenuous part. Change the setting on your serge to normal mode and sew the whole elastic and skirts together by hold and pull method. You only stretch your elastic and not the fabric. Pull from pin to pin and sew on the elastic which will catch both the skirts and bodice at the same time.  And when you finish sewing, tad a! You get a nicely gathered elastic skirt.

And there you have it. A nice sparky dress to twirl around.  Next up, I'll share another refashion sparky dress that I made for the younger girl. Had no choice since she was had to have one to be same as her sister. More to come in my next post!

T-shirt Refashioned

I finally did it! Saw lots of the refashion tutorials around the blogland and made many mental notes to do them one day. But, it's kinda scary to cut up a good piece of T-shirt and mess up the whole thing. What if I cut out too much? What if my final product is worse than the original T-shirt? What ifs..what ifs... These goes through my mind alot and most T-shirt here in Singapore are quite expensive. At least, for me to cut them up.

Well, then I decided to just do it. It surely liberated me and I"m game for more : ) Cut off the sleeves and used them as ruffles for the neck line and sleeve hems. Didn't refer to any particular tutorials but just goes with what I have.  Here's the short tutorial below if you want to try.

Instruction
1. Find a long sleeve T-shirt. I bought 2 long sleeves white spandex T-shirt at $10 a piece from This Fashion.

2. Cut off the sleeves at 3/4.  I've used my old T-shirt blouse as a rough gauge.

3. Open up the sleeves by cuting away the side seams.

4. Use a ruler and measure out 1" strips before you cut them all out. We will not be using the sleeve finished hem.

5. Using the widest stitch width on your sewing machine and increase the tension, sew the strip individually in the middle.  I've used stitch width 4 and tension 6.  Do for all the strips.

6. Afterwhich, you can pull the bobbin thread so that the strip become ruffles-liked. 

7. Pin them around the neckline using pins. Start from the shoulder seam area and make the round to the other shoulder seam. Just lay the next strip after the first one ends.  I've also inserted a piece of lace on top of the centre neckline.

8. Do the same for the sleeve hem. Start from the side seam area and move round it. Pin in place.

9. Using the normal stitch length and tension, sew around the neckline to attach the ruffles.  Sew in the middle of the strip, right on top of the earlier gathered stitch.  You can trim away these extra threads after you have finished sewing the ruffles.  Go very slowly so that it curves around the neckline.  Before I sew the ruffles, I use a straight stitch to sew the piece of lace on.

10. Do the same for the sleeves, except that the area is much smaller and you will need to be careful not to sew the sleeve shut! The finished T-shirt. Maybe next time, I'll be more adventurous and go for some colours. What do you think?

close up on the sleeve hem