Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tee Shirt Maxi Dress

While I was running the other day I had a moment of inspiration. I have been buying 'rag bags' from Goodwill for $4.99, which are basically bags of tee shirts that they couldn't sell. I have made a couple of things out of them like Yoga Pants. Also I made Leggings for both the girls using mens extra large shirts. I have been itching to make a maxi dress for myself and even bought the fabric to make this one. But i am kind of chicken about cutting into a big piece of fabric and having it turn out too clingy or something. So this is what I came up with:
First I went through all my shirts and found the colors that I wanted. I had considered adding another color but when laid out all my shirts, I picked the 4 that were all the same width(except the white strip was about an inch smaller). I basically cut the 4 mens large or extra large tee shirts in strips, about 5 1/2 inches long. The width of the shirts was about 24 inches across. I ended up with 8 large loops of fabric. With right sides together, I used the zig zag stitch and sewed them together. When I got to the white strip I held it up to see how long it was. It ended up being perfect, if you are shorter you can just make your strips a little shorter. I attached the white strip and then used elatic thread and went around 6 or 7 times to make my waist. I used the top of a mens large brown shirt for the top. I used one of my shirts as a pattern and cut it down to fit. Then I just sewed the two pieces together. And I did almost the whole thing while William took a nap. It probably took me 2 1/2 hours total.