Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Button-Down Dress (And Pants)

Hello Readers. Button-down shirts are easy to find at the thrift store, and also your man's side of the closet. That is where I got this blue shirt I am holding in the picture. (Don't worry, he didn't want it anymore.) And I liked this striped dress but it was not comfortable to wear. I always felt like I was just wearing a shirt with no pants, like a flasher. (I got this dress from my daughter who felt the same way about it.)

So to sum up, I had 2 items I could use to make something new.

I cut up the blue shirt so I could use the body of the shirt to make a skirt. The shirt had sleeves, but they didn't make it in the photo. ( I would use those sleeves later.)

I cut the striped dress of at the waist and added the body of the darker blue shirt to the waist of the striped shirt dress. I stitched them together, gathering the darker blue as I went along and made a skirt.

I had a new dress that felt like a full dress. It was still comfortable but I didn't feel exposed.

So what about those sleeves? I wanted to make some little pajama pants for my 4 year old son out of these sleeves. I used a pair of his pants as a pattern. Each sleeve made a pant leg.

 Here are the front and back of the pants. I made a simple elastic waistband. These were easier to put together than I thought They would be. I might be making more of these.

Did he like these new pajamas? Well, yes. But it took cookies to get him to take a few pictures.

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 ***Year End update-This dress was so cute. I still like it. It is put away for winter. My son has worn these pants. He doesn't love the buttons at his ankles but he will wear them.





2 comments:

jenny_o said...

Great idea for the new dress bottom from a big shirt. Did you sew the button placket closed for even more security?

Those pj pants are a perfect use for the sleeves! It pays to have a little person in the household when you're sewing, doesn't it? lol

I Can Work With That said...

Thanks so much! I did sew some of the button placket closed. I should have mentioned that. I couldn't sew too much of the top closed because I had to be able to get it over my head.
It was really fun to sew the little pants.
Chickie