DIY Shirt Dress Tutorial

I've only been wanting a shirt dress for 234893 years. So when I saw the dress on the left at my local Salvation Army (for around $3), I immediately snatched it up. It was literally a square piece of fabric with buttons down the middle & some sleeves stitched on. Originally a size 14, it was really shapeless & unflattering on me.

I had to address two main problems with this dress:

1. The length: Unfortunately it wasn't long enough or the right fabric/cut to keep as a maxi dress, so I needed to make it a more flattering length. I decided on cutting it to just above my knees.
2. The width: Since it was a size that was quite a bit larger than I am, there was way too much extra fabric on the sides. Also, I wanted to make it more fitted & less boxy, so I decided to take in the waist a little bit.

The very first thing to do was to cut out the shoulder pads. Easy.

I decided to cut the dress to the general length I wanted next. I put it on and marked with a pin the approximate length I wanted, making sure to pin it a little longer than I actually wanted it to account for the hem I would later sew. I then measured how far away from the bottom of the dress that pin was, and marked with a pen the same distance all the way across the dress to provide a guide for cutting. Just cut along the marks!

The next step was to adjust the width. I put the dress on inside out and pinned one side so that it was the fit I wanted. I took the dress off, measured how far away the pins were from the original seam, and pinned the other side the same length. I tried it on again to make sure it it fit in the hips & legs. Luckily, I didn't have to do any adjusting. Keeping the dress on inside out, I marked where I wanted the dress to curve in to fit my waist better and give some more shape to the dress. I carefully took off the dress.

This next part was sheer luck. Since I had pins marked straight down the dress and only one pin to mark the waist, I needed to somehow create a gentle curve from the armpit down to the waist pin & then back out again (if that makes any sense at all). I pretty much eyeballed it, starting at the seam where the sleeve & armpit meet and then marking with pins the curve I desired. I was lucky that it turned out. Trial & error is the best method here; you can always take out seams & resew if it's too small/large.

The last step is to hem the bottom to avoid unraveling & stray threads. I marked 3/4 inch all the way around the bottom of the dress, pinned, and sewed.

That's it! The hardest part was creating the curve to make it fitted in the waist. If you wanted to avoid that step, you could sinch the waist with a skinny belt to add some more definition.

TOTAL COST: $3 for the dress & about an hour of my time :)