Wednesday, October 21, 2015

XXXL Men's dress shirt to dress

At the thrift shop, I found this men's XXXL dress shirt from Eddie Bauer. It was made of a nice medium-weight fabric with a slight sheen to it, and it looked like it had never been worn. It was huge on me.


I cut it apart in the middle to make a top and a skirt, and I removed the sleeves.


I cut the ends off the sleeves to create a elbow-length puffed sleeve that would retain the original cuff and buttons.


I took the remaining sleeve fabric, cut it open, and used the widest part to create strips for my waistband.


After that, I pretty much stopped taking pictures. Sorry about that! I used a gathering stitch to take in the skirt to the right width. I used the strips cut from the sleeves to create a waistband that I attached to the skirt. I created some bust darts, then sewed up the sides of the bodice before attaching it to the skirt. Finally, I reattached the new shorter sleeves. Here's the final look.


I like how the curve on the sides of the bottom hem shows the dress's origins as a men's shirt.


The sleeves turned out so cute, with the original buttons, and I liked the back pleating, too.


And the before-and-after shot. A perfect fall dress!


Thanks for reading!  -Amy

7 comments:

jennifer elliott said...

That is AWESOME! It's the perfect fall dress! Amazing!

jenny_o said...

How cute - I love those sleeves :)

RanchHouse said...

This is perfect. Imagine the work it would take to create the details from scratch.
Mary @ RanchHouse EOD

whatthesew said...

An excellent quality refashion. I like the way you kept all the essential elements of the masculine shirt but made it feminine.

Alyssa said...

Love it!

Gema said...

Great fit! Love it! :)

Anonymous said...

This is so awesome!!! Great job!!!