Turning a women's shirt into a girl's dress

The six year old I nanny fell in love with this shirt at Micheal's. Neon colors and stripes are all the rage in first grade fashion this season! Unfortunately it only came in women's sizes. However we bought a small and negotiated she could wear it as a dress, but even as a dress she was swimming in it! So it came to me altering it...




Turning the shirt inside out, first, I lined up the stripes and pinned them so I could shorten the "sleeves". The lines of the stripes provided the perfect lines for sewing the shirt.
 

I borrowed one of my sister's shirts (without her permission of course) to use as a template for how much I should bring in the sides (she's tiny). I couldn't find my fabric pen (my life is a hot mess right now) I pinned where I was going to sew to bring in the sides.
 

Turing the shirt right side out, I didn't like how the extra fabric hung on the back of the collar. I trimmed the shirt the whole way, right above where I sewed. I secured the edges with Fray Check before folding them over and pinning them down. I then sewed across the back for a second time. In hindsight, it would have been easier to just sew across the first time.
 

The back of the neck line doesn't exactly match the rest of the edging on the shirt, but it will do!


SO MUCH BETTER!!!

Project Price: $8.00 Project Time: 30 minutes