Men's Dress Shirt Refashion - 2 for the price of 1!

I scored this XL French Connection RAINBOW shirt at a local thrift store for $7.99.  I knew it was the perfect shirt to finally try a shirt to dress refashion!  As an added bonus, I was able to get a pair of pants for baby out of it, too!  Woohoo!

The first thing I should have done was iron the shirt.  But I have a time limit for sewing projects (hello, naptime!) so I just went for it!  I folded it in half and cut off the arms.  

Then I grabbed one of Raina's current dresses to use as a guide for sizing.  (This layout has nothing to do with how I actually cut out the pieces, BTW.  I thought I might cut it differently at first, hence the lined up armholes, but decided not to go that route!)

I cut it into 3 pieces next:  A nice big chunk from right under the armpit, all the way across the shirt, a rectangle above that about 4" wide, and the top piece with the collar.

it seems I only took a picture of one of these 3 pieces.  Sorry about that :)

I gathered the large rectangle, then lined it up (both pieces open and unbuttoned) right sides facing with the smaller rectangle.  After pining like crazy, I sewed them together.  The stripes on this shirt are confusing really awesome, so sometimes it was hard to decipher which side was right and which was wrong!  I was glad I waited until the end to cut off all the tags!  It made it much easier to keep track of which side was which.

Can you see the mistake I made?  Yeah.  Make sure both rectangles are facing the right direction before you sew them together!  Oh well.

The straps are made from 4 pieces of ribbon sewn on securely, and cut into a "V" to prevent fraying.  The top of the dress is hemmed with one row of white and then top stitched with two rows of red for some decoration.  

Then I decided to add pockets.  They are made from the top part of the shirt, the one I wasn't sure if I was going to use.  I trimmed the back top of the shirt right next to the seams, and then cut it into a cute shape.  The top of the pocket is made from the collar!  Each pocket is decorated with a bow that matches the straps.  When I was taking the pictures, I noticed that despite my best efforts, the pockets are obviously two different sizes.  The collar top was sewn on higher on the left pocket, making them appear to be very different sizes.  I considered ripping them off and fixing it, but decided to just let them be.  

And the finished dress:

And Lucca got pants!  I traced a pair of her pants over the sleeves and cut it out.  Sewed up the crotch, added an elastic waist and some ribbon at the ankles... voila!  Baby pants from sleeves!

Rainbowy goodness.  Two outfits, one shirt.  Happy day.

Rainbow taggie

Wrapped up all pretty like...

I heart taggie blankets.  And ribbon.  And rainbows.  And minky dot fabric. 

Can you see where I'm going with this?

I have, uh, a pretty solid supply of ribbon.  But with my Etsy shop in a low selling season (www.rainasunshine.etsy.com), I've been looking for some new ways to use all the pretties.  They look lonely just sitting around under my craft table waiting and wishing to be wrapped around a dowel and stuck in the oven!  Answer:  taggies!  All kids love taggies.  Something about the silky ribbon, and the rubbing, and ... I'm yawning already.  It's not just kids :).

So, I thought I'd make my own taggie - pretty simple, and a beautiful result!

Minky fabric, with ribbons pinned in place for sewing

This is one yard of white minky dot, which I could cuddle in for the better part of an afternoon.  I cut ribbons in lengths of approxamately 2.5 inches, folded them in half, and pinned them facing in on the right side.  A matching one yard piece of minky gor sandwiched on top, and I sewed it up until I had about a four inch opening left.  I turned it right side out, closed the opening, then topstitched all the way around - this gives the ribbon some extra stability and also gives the whole blanket a nice finished look.

I loves it.

Some ribbon and topstitching detail

Now, in an effort to be completely honest... I'm not showing you my entire finished blanket here :).  In the center of the front, I appliqued the name of my new baby girl, who is due next week.  (Or tonight.  I'll take tonight.)  It looks beautiful if I do say so myself.  And I do.  I printed letters off the interwebs, traced them onto scraps of fabric in various colors (leftover from fat quarters used in the bonnets), and ironed them on with fusible interfacing.  For lengevity, I also handstitched around them.  BUT... you'll have to wait to see that part.  Sorry :)   Really, I'm dying to tell.  But it's the only surprise we've kept with both girls, and we're so close now...  I can't give in!

I've done a few more taggie projects lately...  more on those later...  and hopefully an update soon with the little lady lounging on her personalized taggie!