About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 30 mins

huge old tshirt, transformed into a cute mini-dress
While thrift store hunting with my friend, I found a cool Bob Marley tee... that happened to be about seven sizes too big. But unlike my friend, who thought the graphic was cool, but questioned my sanity when I threw it over my arm with my other finds, I decided that it would made a cute dress. I spent a few days searching for inspiration, but finally decided on a tie-back tank dress with an a-line skirt. Of course, it could be easily switched up... keep some of the sleeve, leave off the ties for a looser almost-babydoll look, cut off some of the bottom and make it a tunic shirt...
A few snips and a couple passes with the sewing machine, and (flying entirely by the seat of my pants, with no idea if it would fit) I managed this. Not only cute and comfy, but recycled and repurposed, so it's green too.
All for $2.50.

Posted by Stephanie K. from Gainesville, Florida, United States • Published 3rd May 2010 • See Stephanie K.'s 24 projects »

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Ashleigh P. added Recycled Tank Dress to Dresses 15 Nov 01:25
bemeself favorited Recycled Tank Dress 15 Jun 20:36
Pace.Amore.SiRide favorited Recycled Tank Dress 13 Jul 19:29
Bat Ma'am favorited Recycled Tank Dress 26 Jun 03:55
Stephanie K. entered her project Recycled Tank Dress to Secondhand Chic Contest 04 May 04:01

Step 1
Take your tshirt and lay it out flat. Cut off the sleeves just inside the seam, and take off the collar.
Step 2
Trim what's left of the sleeves until it suits you... I left mine as wide tank straps, but I could have gone slimmer.
Step 3
Take the sleeves from your scrap pile and cut them along the inside (short) seam, so you get two long, wide strips. Trim off a couple inches from either side (lengthwise) so your strips are about four inches wide (again, there was no measuring when I did this, so it's all guesstimation). These will be the ties on the back of your dress.
Step 4
Put the shirt on and check how much needs to be taken in on the sides. I'm not the "measure twice, cut once" sort of girl, so I just picked a spot and started pinning. That said, I did hold it up to myself to check that it at least appeared to fit.
Step 5
By now, assuming you're using a huge tshirt like I did, you'll notice how large the armholes you have left are. The bottom edge of mine hits at the low waist, almost at my hips. This bottom edge is where you'll attach your strips.

Flip the shirt inside-out and, with the strips inside the shirt (right-side), pin one end of the ties between the two layers of shirt. Repeat with the other tie on the other side. Continue pinning up from about a half-inch below the bottom armhole edge until the remaining armholes are comfortably sized. Place the pins far enough in from the edge to take the top of the dress in to fit you (it was about three or four inches for me).
Step 6
Sew along the pinned line, either with a machine or using a sturdy handstitch, making sure you sew through the end of the tie (I mades sure of it by lining up the strip's edge with the outer edge of the tshirt). Don't sew all the way down to the bottom hem of the shirt, unless you don't want it to flare out!
Step 7
Remove the pins, flip the dress back to the right side and try it on! Do any adjustments to fit and the neckline and armholes (if they need to be altered/trimmed, etc). Then put it on, tie the strips behind you, and rock your new mini-dress.