A Ryan Shirt to a Brinley Dress!!

The idea just came to me when after a few weeks debating if Ryan and I actually liked a certain shirt of his. Navy gingham. Come ON! Gorgeous. For some reason, it just didn't fit right. Actually, I know why, but he made me promise that I wouldn't reveal it on the blog. Ooookay :-)

So, I had an old shirt of Brinley's that fit her up top, but shrunk and was just too tight on her chubby belly. I should have gotten a 18 month size but I was desperate, and honestly, I don't think I had enough fabric from the shirt to make a dress any bigger.

Here's the shirt. From Target. 

Here is "the questionable shirt." It is a cotton flannel. Surprisingly really easy to sew with. I thought it would stretch like jersey, but it was great! ahhh I thought about tailoring it down to fit me, but honestly, I could not get the idea out of my head of cute Miss B wearing a navy gingham dress. To DIE FOR!!!!

I cut the shirt APART. Tried to salvage as much from the biggest parts as possible. I actually needed more fabric than I anticipated so I am grateful I just didn't go ca-razy with the scissors. I measured as I went and made sure the pieces were lined up (almost perfectly). I had a larger piece from the center of the shirt, and then two on each side that were probably...7 inches wide from the shirt front panels. I sewed both sides to the middle. Cut it down into a rectangle. Maybe about 15 inches long, I don't know...30 inches long? I didn't record the measurements, sorry!

I have NO idea how I did it, but I set my machine to what I thought was just a gathering or to lengthen the stitch, thinking I was going to have to pull my thread to gather it. ANd LOW and BEHOLD...It gathered it for me!!!!!!!!!! I was freaking out. I had no idea what I was doing to get this beauty so perfectly!

So I took a pic of the stitch info. 8 on the round turn-y guy on top, and my stitch length 5.0. I usually set mine at 3 and 2.5.

I sewed the raw edges together to finish the skirt portion.

Here is the skirt portion.

I cut, maybe 3-4 inches from the bottom. Just where I thought it should be.

Turn the shirt INSIDE out and the skirt RIGHT side out, and pin the shirt to the top part of the skirt,

Sew it together, and pull out the gathering stitches. Seriously, SO easy as to what I thought when I started this process.

I made a double hem. Iron 1/4 inch down, then fold over again and pin, and stitch!!!

Final product! It is SO cute. I am debating whether to do something with the navy buttons that came with the shirt. I probably won't do anything unless you lovely ladies inspire me!!

And....Miss B in her new summer dress!!!

(I already need to tweak the hem because...umm...it's short. I mean, she could get away with it with some bummies over her diaper OR leggings, but I know I have at least an inch that I can get on the hem, so I'm going to try to fix that first)