It took me longer to write this tutorial than to make the dress – no joke.
Give it a shot!
First, grab your supplies – I started with a youth size medium sleeveless racerback T shirt – this will work with any sleeveless shirt with a binding. We’ll try it with a regular t shirt next time…
You will also need –
Scissors or a seam ripper- About 3 – 3.5 yards of ribbon (1/8″ is easy to pull through – you could go up to 1/2″)
- A Bodkin (this is a sewing tool used for threading elastic and turning things – mine is ball point) or a safety pin small enough to fit into the binding. Make sure it’s nice and sturdy.
Grab your scissors and start snipping:
Now grab your ribbon and bodkin or safety pin:
A few close ups of the Ribbon Threading to help you along:
And there you go! Pull your ribbons through and tie off as desired, trim to the length you like. I found it best to make sure the shirt is gathered in the front and not in the back – it will lay better that way.
Embellish your dress, and make it awesome! Here is ours finished (though as of yet unadorned) – best pictures I could get with my ‘I’m not so much in the mood for this right now’ model –
So cute, Cindi! Now how can we do it in myyyyy size?! Actually, I bet I could do a quick project were a thrifted skirt is attached to the bottom of a similarly-styled tank to make a quick summer babydoll thing. Hmmm… thanks for the inspiration!
Oh, and I thought I’d add, before I had a bodkin, I found the eraser-end of a unsharpened pencil works pretty well, too. Just enough grab to help you push through.
Cool idea with the pencil! And yes please try that! I have one sitting here waiting for a little one to try that with…would love to see it work for a grown up! Thanks Miss Amber!