Recycled Mens Shirt Into Knotted Dress

I enjoy harvesting fabric from previously made clothing.

Papa's denim chambray shirt.

This fabric is soft and flowing and I started thinking about how I could use it to make this months sewing challenge at Project Run and Play in conjunction with this darling red robin fabric.

 Why did I choose to use topstitched box pleats instead of gathers?

  The choice to use pleats solved a problem. When I removed the pocket from the shirt front, the fabric under the pocket was darker in color.  I needed every bit of the original fabric to make the finished dress, so I hid the darker pocket shaped spot inside the box pleat.

 In addition to using this cheerful bird fabric, I top-stitched the dress in red and added red buttons to create a color scheme of denim blue and red.

Back of Dress

During the design phase of planning this dress, I decided to use the front button placket down the back of the skirt on the dress.  The placket is sewn shut and merely ornamental . You can see that I used the entire width around the men's shirt to create the skirt, and the original side seams remain.

The front of the dress uses the cuffs of the shirt and a trimmed width collar from the original shirt. I just love 

the little red ball buttons that I added to highlight these features.

 Three evenly spaced box pleats

 are used on the front skirt too.

Front of Dress
 Here is the completed dress. 

Accessories- Hair and Necklace.

Ponytail Hair Ribbons

Felt Bird Necklace

With a bit of green hair for St. Patrick's Day

Smiles,

Deborah