2 Shirt Sundress

It all started with 2 Men's shirts that belonged to her Grandfather (Papa).

One was a very small blue, white, and yellow plaid, and the second was a light yellow oxford.

 

My inspiration was from Simplicity pattern 2265. When I spied this design, I could picture it a remake using men's shirt with the "gathered flower petals" on the front. So I cut and measured and created a similar design until 2:00 am in the morning because it was so much fun!

As you create the dress you keep thinking...

how can I creatively use the parts of the shirt?

If you click on the picture it will enlarge so you can see the details.

 

 

First, I have to thank my lucky stars that the side seams in the Men's shirt was matched, and that the shirt was cut on grain!!!!!  It made it easy to cut around the entire width of the shirt using the plaid as my cutting guide.  That piece was then gathered at the top to create the dress front and back. I just loved using that front button tab down the back and not making any buttonholes or sewing on a button to match.  YEAH!

 

The front and back bodice were cut from the sleeves of the plaid shirt. 

 

 THEN I had the idea to use the cuffs as the shoulder straps...... that made me smile :)

 

 

I utilized the placket in the sleeve when cutting the back bodice, which was a bit tricky to finish the edge on the other side.

I needed to add two button holes in this area.

 

I finished the bottom of the dress with a strip of fabric from the yellow oxford. Then I added all these buttons from my button box.  Before I throw one of my husband's shirt away, I always cut off the buttons and save them, so I had lots to choose from.

 

 

A funny story about those buttons is that I sewed most of them on at the car repair shop while I waited for my car to be repaired. One of the mechanics took my picture to show his wife that women really do know how to sew on buttons. 

 

He took a step by step sequence to show his wife

"How to Sew on a Button".

 

To finish the raw edges in the inside,  I buttoned on the button side of the shirt, and then turned under the edges of each side and hand stitched the edges shut. Originally, I was only going to have the empty buttonholes on this strip, but this finished the inside so it was smooth as E wears the sundress.

Papa likes to tease E that she's wearing his shirt, and she loves it even more because of that.
  I can't wait to make my next creation as this one was SO MUCH FUN!

Deborah
Here's your link back to Project Run and Play.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my sundress as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Please leave a "trail of your thoughts" as I so enjoy reading them.