Pretty Summer Shirt From A Men's Dress Shirt

Have I mentioned how much I love Yard Sales! =) 

 It's one of my favorite things about summer! 

I got this pretty pink men's dress shirt at a church yard sale. It didn't cost much. I think it was 25 cents.

It was big! I don't remember the size exactly and now I can't find the tag. lol 

Here's how I made it girly: 

First, I took off the pocket with a seam ripper.

Next, I laid out the dress flat in the floor. Then cut straight across from armpit to armpit.  I used a ruler to get a straight line.  (I set the top part of the shirt to the side, because I would need that later.)

Along the top, I finished the raw edge, by folding over the top twice (about 1/2") and sewing a hem.

Next, I turned the bottom part inside out and tried it on.  I used stick pins to pin the sides closer to my body.  This part is a little tricky. You want to pin the same amount of fabric on both sides.

I *carefully* took off the shirt so I could sew it tighter to my body. 

Next, I sewed along the pins on both sides.

I tried on the shirt (right side out) to make sure the fit was right. Not too tight, Not too loose, since I was adding straps.

 Once I was happy with the fit, I turned the shirt inside out again and trimmed off the excess fabric.

 Then I zig zagged the raw edges.

 This is what it should look like after the zig zag.

 

I turned the shirt right side out.  I sewed the top two buttons shut. (Not everyone would have to do this, but I'm a little bigger than average on top, and button up shirts tend to gap on me.)

 The next step was to try the shirt on again. I then measured for the straps,adding an extra inch on each end to sew inside the shirt.  I also measured how wide I wanted the strap to be.  For example, my straps needed to be 2.5" wide and 17.5" long after the raw edges were sewn.  

I used the material from the original sleeves to cut strips for my straps.

 I cleaned up my raw edges on my straps before I moved onto anything else.

 I took one end of my strap and sewed a gathering stitch straight across the bottom. I only did this for the part of the strap that will be on the front of the shirt.  **To make a gathering stitch, I turn up my thread ease to "9" and make my stitch size "5".  I leave a long tail of thread on each end so I can adjust the gather before I sew it to the shirt.** 

My next step was to attach the straps to the shirt (almost finished...yay!)  

To do this, I tried the shirt on (again), I found a place on the front of the shirt that I was happy with and pinned the gathered part of the strap there. Then I sewed it to the shirt.  I tried the shirt on again. This next step is a whole lot easier if you have a helper to pin the strap to the back of the shirt. 

Make sure the straps are tight enough before you sew them on.  If they aren't, adjust the straps from the back of the shirt until they fit the way you want.

Then sew the strap to the back where it's pinned.

 

 I felt the shirt was missing something. It seemed to plain. I went through my fabric stash and found some white fabric and decided this shirt needed a decorative ruffle.  To do this, I measured in between both straps then doubled that measurement.  Mine measured 9 so I cut a strip of fabric 18 inches long by 2 inches wide.

I put it in the sewing machine and sewed a gathering stitch.  This is how it looked after that:

I pinned the white fabric ruffle in place and sewed along the seam on the front of the shirt. Lastly, I zig zag stitched the bottom raw edge of the white ruffle.

    

And now I have a super cute summer top!

Thanks for reading! 
Hope this all made sense. If not, just ask and I'll do my best to answer any questions. =) 



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