I love quick projects. This one was silly fast (after the thrifting was over anyway). It went something like this:
We were at a thrift store in Milwaukee. Lupine found a Darth Vader mask on the floor. She didn't know who Vader was but knew it was "freaky" and put it on to chase Sage around the store. As they rounded the rack of big girl clothes, Darth Vador stopped in his/her tracks. "Strawberries!", squealed Darth, in a voice of total bliss, pulling a size 10 shirt from the rack. "I love strawberries!"
She used some strange power (the force, perhaps?) that she has over me even without the mask and convinced me to buy her clothing that wouldn't fit her for most of a decade.
When I came to my senses (days after buying the shirt) we agreed to repurpose it into a dress that she could wear now. Nothing in her closet matched it well enough to be the top half of the dress so we headed out to the thrift store again. The store we visited has little old women working the register and ridiculous prices like $ 0.25 for shirts so we bought three with plans for more projects down the road.
While I was partial to pairing this with a green or red shirt Lu was set on lacy pink, so I conceded. It's her dress after all.
My friend D. has been making these all winter but I never did find
that tutorial she directed me to. So I just made it up myself. I cut off both shirts a couple of inches below the armpits. Then we pinned the top of the pink shirt to the bottom of the strawberries, gathering the excess skirt fabric as we went. I top stitched with a zig-zag stitch because of the placement of the lace trim but would have preferred a serged or zigged stitch inside for a neater finish.
In the end its a bit shorter than I intended, but still sweet. I will try the next one with an adult tee shirt for the skirt and see how the project transforms.
Do you have a great tee shirt dress tutorial to share?
Ooooo…cute. And I think I know the thrift place you’re talking about. I love it there!
lu looks like a grown up girl in this gorgeous dress. Tell her to stop growing up so fast!
Love it!!
Here’s something else you MUST make Lu this spring – a twirly skirt out of the sleeves of men’s dress shirts!
http://capital-sew-and-sew.blogspot.com/2007/08/restylin-lumberjack-classic.html
And this is also adorable, though you’d have to find a long adult tee
http://ohsohappytogether.blogspot.com/2009/07/roses-and-ruffles-t-shirt-to-toddler.html
The skirt is so cute! I have been working with mens shirt sleeves trying to come up with something. This is perfect! Thanks lady.
Ami – I know. I thought it would be long and it was a glorified shirt. Didnt go to her knees like I anticipated. XO
Those are my favorites, the little old lady thrift stores. I also scored a pair of teak danish modern candle holders for 50 cents and an antique glass apothecary jar for $3. Smiling…
too cute!