Hello all!
Don’t you just love little girls and ruffles? I know I sure do! While my little friend is still here this week, I thought I would tackle this project I have been wanting to try. My girls wont let me dress them any more, just not fair. 😉 What better time to try this when you have a five year a old genuine pig I mean model staying with you?
I will try to explain how I made this the best I can. When get an idea or inspiration form someone else to make something, I sort of just wing it. I usually don’t follow directions, unless it doesn’t work at first. I know I should have been a guy. Ha Ha.
I bought a child’s sized long sleeved t-shirt form Wal-Mart, I think it was $4 on sale.
I had the fabric, ribbon and tulle on hand from other projects. The fabric and ribbon are from Wal-Mart and the tulle is from Michael’s in the bridal section.
First I cut long strip of the fabric, twice the circumference of the shirt and 4 1/2″ wide. The length of the fabric strip needs to be at least twice the circumference of the shirt, but can be longer for a fuller ruffle. The width can be any length you want the dress to be. I held the fabric up to the dress and eyeballed the length I wanted it. I then press a very small hem with my iron on one side of the length of the fabric. Then stitched the hem with my sewing machine. On the opposite end I used a gather stich along the length of the fabric. If You don’t know how to do a gather stich this is a good tutorial. I then pulled the stich to gather the fabric to create the ruffles. I didn’t loosen the tension enough, because I used a heavier weight fabric it made it quite difficult and time consuming to ruffle the fabric. Just make sure your tension is not too tight, to save your self some frustration. 🙂
Next I unrolled the tulle and cut it at 4 times the circumference of the shirt, at one end using the gather stich again down the length of the tulle. Again, you can make the tulle as full as you want. Pull to ruffle the tulle. No need to hem.
I pinned the fabric ruffle to the bottom hem of the shirt after turning it inside out. Make sure the good side of the fabric is facing in. I pinned it so the edges of the fabric started and stopped on the side of the shirt, so the seams would line up. I then pinned the tulle ruffle on top of the fabric to create the layers. I stitched two seams, one at the bottom of the hem on the shirt. And one at the top of the hem. I used a zigzag stich along the top of the hem over the edge of the fabric and tulle to keep every thing from fraying. I then sewed the fabric edges on the side together. A better seamstress than I would probably go about this differently, like said before I just wing it and hope it turns out. 🙂
For the ribbon, I first cut to the length I needed to go around the bottom of the shirt plus 1/2″ for over lap. I used some heat bond tape to affix the ribbon to the shirt with my iron, I didn’t want it shifting at all while sewing. You can just pin it first, then sew if you like. I just didn’t want to fight with it to stay straight. After turning the shirt right side out I started on the side at the seam. I aligned the bottom of the ribbon with the very bottom of the shirt edge and pressed the ribbon on all the way around. At the ends of the ribbon, I turned the cut edges under and over lapped them slightly for a finished look. You may have to play with it a bit to get the ribbon where you want it, especially if the bottom of the shirt is tapered. I then using the sewing machine, stitched the bottom and top edge of the ribbon to the shirt.
You can add any embellishments you want. I used this flower hair clip, and safety pined it to the shirt. Some fabric flowers like this or these would be amazing as well.
Here is the finished Tu-Tu T-Shirt Dress! I hope my directions made sense. Are you inspired to give it a try? It really was fun to create, and my little buddy was really excited to wear it.
Have fantastic weekend all!