T-shirt Dress for Charity

In the United States we would not consider a homemade t-shirt dress for a special occasion, but to a girl in an impoverished county, the day she receives her very first new dress, is indeed a special occasion!

I've (Vicki) been sewing dresses for distribution to girls in need for three years. I usually make pillowcase dresses, but have started to make t-shirt dresses since finding instructions for utilizing a t-shirt as the bodice of a dress. See the instructions here.

I have modified the instructions to better fit my style of sewing. Let's get started.

• Cotton or Cotton blend fabric, pre-washed
• Cotton t-shirt, pre-washed
• Fusible interfacing, lightweight
• Thread
• Fusible webbing (optional)
• Black permanent marker
• Cutting mat, rotary cutter, sewing ruler
• Sewing machine, I'm using a vintage singer 221
• Sewing clips
• Iron

• Lay the t-shirt, inside out, front side facing up on the cutting mat.
• Match up the bottom of the armholes with one of the horizontal lines.
• Smooth everything out.
• With the ruler and rotary cutter, cut the bottom of the shirt 3" from the bottom of the armholes.
• Continue to cut 2" strips from the remaining piece to use as trim.
• Mark the front, back, and sides with the marker.
• The selvages will be seamed and will be placed at the center back.

With the rotary cutter, cut one inch strips across the width of the interfacing. Approximately two are needed for each dress.

• Refer to chart in the link for the length needed.
• I like to clip one selvage side and tear the fabric across grain to get a straight edge.
• Add about two inches to the finished length to allow for hemming.
• Press the fabric if there is significant wrinkling especially on the selvage edges.
• Mark the center and sides of the skirt with the marker.

• The back seam is finished with a French seam.
• To make a French seam: Pin selvage edges wrong sides together.
• Stitch a 3/8" seam, fold and press so the right sides of the fabric are now together, pin or use clips.
• Sew again, this time slightly wider than 3/8" so the previous seam is now enclosed.
• Press the seam to one side.
• Gather the top of the skirt.
• This is where I vary from the instructions in the original.
• The original instructs you to add tucks to fit the skirt to the bodice.
• This method is a little to imprecise for my liking and took too much time to finesse.
• Gathering by machine and adjusting the gathers by pulling out gathers to fit or adding small tucks works much better for me.
• Use the machine gathering foot, a tight top tension, and the longest available stitch to gather the top of the skirt.

• Fuse the interfacing to the cut edge of the t-shirt. This is to stabilize the knit so it does not stretch out of shape. Be sure you are still able to see your marks at center and sides of t-shirt.
• With right sides together match up the centers and side marks of the skirt with those of the bodice.
• Pin. Depending on the size of the bodice, adjust the gathering by cutting threads and pulling out gathers or adding small tucks.
• Pin all around.
• Sew 1/4" to 3/8" from edge.
• Sew again about 1/8" from previous stitches in the seam allowance to help prevent fraying.
• Press the bodice seam towards the top of the garment (away from the skirt).
• With the garment right side out, top stitch 1/8" from seam. This gives the garment a finished look and helps with fraying.

Turn up one inch for the hem, press, turn up one inch one more time. Stitch close to the folded edge. Add ruffle trim made from the leftover t-shirt strips. Machine gather, top stitch ruffle to the stitched hem line.

For more projects visit MotherDaughteProjects.com!