Sassy ‘Dress Shirt’

Typically the vintage dresses I come across have been ripped, stained or eaten by evil moths. Instead of parting with the abused garment, I hide the problem areas with a little creativity and turn it into a sassy
one-of-a-kind shirt.

This is what my finished product looked like, but each ‘Sassy Dress Shirt’ will be unique! Read on to learn how to make your very own ‘Sassy Dress Shirt’.

What you will need:
An old dress
Seam Ripper
Iron & Ironing Board
Straight Pins
Sewing Machine
Ribbon to match the dress (if desired to cover holes, etc)

Assess how long you would like your ‘shirt’ to be and cut the excess off, leaving about two inches for hemming. I don’t subscribe to the midriff look from the late 90‘s, so I hem my ‘shirt’ to fall a couple inches below my hip bone.

Turn your ‘shirt’ inside out and measure your hem all the way around, pressing and pinning it as you go. Sew your new hem with a blind hem stitch or whatever you normally fancy when you hem something up.

If you have ribbon or embellishments that match your new ‘shirt’, now is the time to hide those stains or moth holes. No one will be the wiser! In the past, I’ve made little fabric flowers out of the left over material to cover the problem areas.

For this shirt, I removed the ribbon that was once around the bottom hem of my dress to cover over a stain on the front, following the neckline.

I opened the seam where the zipper stopped on the backside and followed that opening with more ribbon. This allowed me a little more booty shakin’ room.
Sew all of your ribbon and your embellishments in place.

Here’s my backside… of the shirt. What were you thinking I meant? Scroll down to see the front again.

Ta-Dah! I love wearing this cute little number out on the town. Let me know if you try making your own Sassy Dress Shirt. I would love to see how yours turns out!