Upcycled Men’s Shirt to Ladies Dress

I’ve done another clothing upcycle!

I started with a men’s shirt (that I picked up from the car boot sale for 50p):

And I turned it into this:

I spotted the idea on Pinterest. I couldn’t find a tutorial so had to think for myself but it looked quite straightforward!

All I bought for this refashion was a piece of 3″ elastic, which I stitched into a ring to fit around my waist:

I sliced the snazzy shirt in two, saving the top section for another project:

I then gathered the top of the “skirt” – which is the bottom of the shirt:

And attached it to the chunky elastic waistband:

[This part was FIDDLY. I wanted to make sure the side seams were actually at the sides, and the front buttons were right in the middle, and the stitched section of the waistband was bang in the middle of the back. I’m happy to say that I succeeded in all this; but it took some time and a lot of deep breaths!]

So that’s the skirt done.

I suppose I could have left it at that – but I wanted a dress.

So I took a little top I was happy to upcycle (I actually bought this for 20p recently – of course from the booty!) and with a lot of patience managed to stitch that to the other side of the waistband. Easier said than done, because the top is stretchy… but I did it!

I didn’t even bother cutting the top. It’s comfy under the skirt!

All that was left to do was change the thread of the lowest button as someone had re-stitched it in white… and I was finished!

Accessorized with a lovely scarf my sister-in-law made me, which is just the PERFECT colour to match the shirt-that’s-now-a-dress.

I think it’s pretty cool.

Beth x