Fun Funky Garments

This post is about two dresses that I just finished and I am very excited about. Both used t-shirts that I got at the thrift store. My go to fabric store. I often purchase garments there more for the fabric than I do to actually wear.

 A friend of mine was visiting and we were thrifting. She happened to find this wonderful two piece outfit. I was so excited I didn't even think to check the size but decided this MUST go home with me. When I got home, I discovered that this was a size 4 petite. Now I could fit in this but I felt like a stuffed sausage in a bun. That was not going to discourage me. I knew I had some altering to do over and above what I had wanted to do just to make it fit.

 First I cut off a portion of the bottom dress because I was going to add a altered bottom. I then cut apart the side seams and used a similar red t-shirt to sew in the sides to make the dress bigger.

 This might be hard to see, but I don't often make drawings of what my ideas are for my garments. Usually those ideas just stay in my brain since those ideas often change but this time I did make a drawing. I am trying to improve my drawing skills.

 For the bottom, I cut off under the arms of a EX large men's red t-shirt for the base of the peplum.

 I decided what size I wanted my striped panels to be which were different red and white t-shirts. Don't ask me how I determined this since I often do fuzzy math.

 I decided the first bottom had too much red in it. I decided to split the red sections with another stripped panel, which of course make the bottom peplum fuller but I had no problem with that. The panels were also different sizes but they were similar.

 As often happens with I do an size adjustment on the side seams, the garment is sometimes too large in one or two body areas. On this piece it was the waist. So I added some elastic in the back to make me have a slightly more waistline. Of course that is not in these pictures.

 Now I had to work with the overdress. I cut off a section of the bottom and also split is down the front. I also had to split down the side seams to add red t-shirt fabric to make it sorta fit me. One problem that I discovered was (and you can see this in this picture) was that this overdress was not cut on the grainline and didn't hang right. It twisted. Now others might not have noticed this but it bugged me. I added a two inch band to each front side of the overdress and did buttons and button holes and wore it once. I decided that the overdress covered up too much of the dress, which I loved the most of the two pieces. So I went home and cut off most of the overdress and made a short top.

I have received so many compliments when I am in this dress and feel very sassy. I know that no one would guess that I altered this dress so much and totally changed it. I am guessing most people wouldn't even know that I made it.


This dress is my very latest creation, and absolutely love this. This dress and the red outfit above, may become my new two favorite looks. They are definitely going to be my Red Carpet International Quilt Festival looks this year.

Sharon Richards from the Quiltart list and I attended a fashion exhibit two years ago in Chandler Arizona. One of the young designers had made a strapless dress out of the graphics of recycled t-shirts. I decided right then and there that I wanted to make my own version and while I have often used saying from t-shirts, I had never used them quite like this. So I collected t-shirts from the thrift store with funky sayings on them.

 This is what I came up with. It is so much fun.

 In these pictures I didn't have any sleeves in the dress but is over a black undershirt. I decided to put short sleeves in so I can wear it in warmer weather and then wear it with an undershirt like in these pictures when the weather is colder.

My plan is to make a jacket to wear with this and make it with more colored t-shirt graphics than the mostly red and white ones I used in this dress. My Mr. Partner In Crime LOVED this dress. In fact he liked it so much, he wanted me to make him a matching shirt. So we just went to the thrift store and picked out some manly t-shirt graphics to use in his shirt. How cool is that  !!!!! More on his outfit when I get it done.