Layered T-Shirt Dress

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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