How to Make Dresses Using Knit Shirts

Leggings are an ideal complement to a shirt dress.

Shirt dresses or sweater dresses are a common trend that allows you to use over-sized or long shirts to form flattering and comfortable dresses. Belts and leggings can enhance the transformation from shirt to dress. Shirts can be easily and inexpensively procured for the dress project from local discount stores, thrift stores or even your own closet. Turning an old knit shirt into a trendy dress can breathe new life into a shirt that has been in your closet for years.

Things You'll Need

• Over-sized or long knit shirt
• Belt
• Safety pins
• Needle and thread
• Sewing machine
• Fabric glue
• Embellishments
• Leggings

Instructions

1. Belt the shirt around your waist or under your bust line, depending on your preference, to give the shirt a dress-like shape and form it around your body.

2. Pinch the shirt on either side below your bust. In lieu of belting the shirt into a dress, gather and pull the excess material on either side to meet in the middle of your back. You may need an assistant to help you with this method, as it is most easily executed when the dress is on you.

3. Smooth out the fabric and position of the pinched fabric so it is gathered neatly in a couple of creases. Have the assistant aid you in making the gathered fabric look neat and orderly, with the fabric on the outside and inside of the creases smoothed down so it is not lumpy.

4. Pin both gathered sides in place at the back of the shirt, cinching in the waist of the dress, with safety pins. Discreetly pin the gathered fabric in place by inserting the pins from underneath the shirt, so the majority of the pin is concealed underneath. Hold the pinched fabric yourself, guided by the assistant, as the assistant pins the fabric from underneath the dress. If this is too difficult, remove the shirt and pin it while you're not wearing it.

5. Sew the gathered fabric in place for a more secure hold in lieu of pinning it. This allows you to preserve the look of the shirt dress without redoing the pinning the next time you wear it. The assistant can sew the creases down by hand with a vertical stitch that stitches through the back of the dress and up the entire length of each crease, starting at the sides, where the fabric is pinched, and continuing up the back. Remove the dress and run the creased areas through a sewing machine to apply a more secure stitch over the one done by hand.

6. Add decorative elements to the shirt dress by using fabric glue or pins to adhere silk flowers, buttons, beads or rhinestones to the fabric.

7. Add a pair of leggings under the shirt dress to complete the ensemble.

Tips & Warnings

• Ideally, the hem of the shirt should be at least at your upper thigh for a mini dress or to the knee for a longer dress.

• If you don't like the hems on the back of the shirt dress, hem it on the sides of the shirt, under the arms.