Monday, June 18, 2012

The things you can do with an old T-Shirt...Part 3

What a cute kid right? I totally agree.

Alright, this is the 3rd and final installment of "The Things you can do with an old T-Shirt". I'm going to go ahead and call this dress "The Braided Dress", creative right? Here's what you need to create it: (If you missed how to do the headband...Click here

  • Old T-shirt (I used Black)
  • Leftovers from another T-Shirt (I used Yellow) 
  • Thread
  • Scissors
Alright, now for the process...

Step 1: Use a dress you already own as a template and place it on your t-shirt. Then just trace the outline, leaving an extra 1/2 inch on each side that will be eaten up when sewing the two pieces together.
Step 2: Cut out what you've traced. You'll want to cut both the front and back of the t-shirt so that you have two pieces that are identical. 

Step 3: Sew the two pieces together, front to front. You only need to sew up the sides.(From the bottom of the dress to where the armpit starts) Don't do anything with the bottom or the neck, and you don't want to sew the arm holes together! Once you're done sewing the sides together, pin the arm holes down about 1/2 an inch and sew each one so that the seem is on the inside of the dress and now the outside is nice and clean looking.
Step 4: Now all that's left is the braid. You're going to want to cut out three strips and sew them together. If possible, try to find strips long enough to go around the whole neck, I didn't have any strips long enough for that so I had to sew two smaller braids together. Sew the top of the three strips together and then just braid them, as you would your hair, until you reach the bottom. Then simply attach them using your sewing machine to the bottom of the dress. If possible try to use coordinating thread so that the thread isn't visible.


I cut my strips about 1/2 an inch wide but I'm sure if you made them wider than that it would be good too. It would probably just mean you had a thicker braid. What's great about this project is you don't need to be precise. I simply eye-balled it and cut strips that looked close enough to the same size and somewhat straight. By braiding the strips together the inconsistencies vanish!
Step 5: Do the same thing for the bottom of the dress (you'll probably need to sew together a few braids) and VOILA! You're done!


Thank you for those of you who shared the link to my last post on Facebook. The three people who let me know that they shared the link were Christine (1), Suzanne (2) and Amy (3). I used a random number generator (random.org) and the winner is...Christine!!! Congrats, your 3 headbands will be coming soon.


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