The other day while shopping at the thrift store, I came across some men's t-shirts that coordinated well together. I thought they would be perfect for a layered dress that I had been envisioning in my mind. I also found a navy blue half slip that would be perfect as the base of the dress.
I brought them home and got to work.
I first put the slip onto my dress form and pinned the sides.
I then trimmed away the excess.
The next step was to cut my strips with a rotary cutter.
I cut several strips 3" wide.
I could have left the edges raw since t-shirt fabric doesn't fray, but I opted to go with a small serged edge. It finished it off and gave a slight ripple to the edge. Now it was just of matter of stitching the strips to the front and back of the slip. I followed the curved hem of the slip and and placed each layer about 1/2" over the previous layer.
Once they were all attached, I set the front and back skirt aside and worked on the top. I used a commercial pattern that I already had to make the bodice. I trimmed the neck and sleeves with the black t-shirt material.
I attached the front and back skirt to the bodice before stitching the side seams. The t-shirt fabric had some stretch, but not enough to go with out a zipper, so I placed an invisible zipper in one of the side seams. Once the zipper installation was complete, I pinned each layer to make sure they would match perfectly and then stitched the sides.
Here's a close-up of the layering.
I'm really happy with the results. Its super comfy and cost about $10 to make. The necklace was a last minute addition to the outfit. I'll post about that in the near future.
I like to link to these great parties.
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