Oversized Men's Shirt to Cute Dress DIY

Last Wednesday I realized I had run out of arts and crafts material, so I decided to take a quick trip to Salvation Army (remember Wednesday is 50% off day at Salvation Army)! For only $22, I purchased 13 shirts, one of them being a super nice men's dress shirt. The shirt was massive and long enough to be a dress so I decided to turn it into just that!





Here's What You Will Need:
* Oversized Men's Dress Shirt~ $2.50 at Salvation Army (highly suggested
* Transparent Sewing Thread
* Sewing Needles
* Fabric Scissors
* Bow tie (Optional)~ $3.00 at a costume store
* Belt or Bow Sash
* Pencil
* Ruler

Approximate Cost~ $5.50

Step 1

Lay out your oversized shirt, try it on, and make sure it is long enough to be a dress (this shirt is much smaller than the actual one I used, but I unfortunately forgot to take a picture before I started on the project).









Step 2

With your fabric scissors, carefully cut the sleeves off of your shirt and set the fabric aside.










Step 3

Fold the cut fabric of the sleeves inwards and pin them down. Now sew the fabric you have just pinned to create a clean new sleeve cuff.





















Step 4

Since this is a men's shirt, chances are that when you try on the shirt there is alot of excessive fabric at your waist and sides. Fix this problem by taking in the fabric at the sides. Draw a curved line (the pencil will wash out) on both sides of the shirt indicating how far in you want the waist to go. Use your ruler to make sure that the lines on the right and left of the shirt have the same measurements. Next, cut open the existing seams on the sides of your shirt. Now cut the excess fabric on the waist by following the curved line you drew with the pencil. WARNING: do NOT cut directly on the line, but rather cut about an away from the line. This will leave enough fabric to create a new seam later.




Step 5
The newly cut fabric on the sides of the shirt should be rough. Just like you did with the sleeves, fold in the side fabric and pin them down. At this point, you can also fix the size of the sleeves. Previously, you should have cut the side seam all the way through and into the sleeve. When you are folding in the sides of your shirt, fold some of the sleeve inwards as well until you have attained the desire arm hole size. Pin the fabric down.
Step 6
Turn the shirt inside out and sew the folded fabric together at the sides of the shirt. This will create a brand new side seam and give the shirt a more fitted look and feel.

Enjoy your new dress!!

You can add a bow tie as a fun detail or wear black tulle or a pleated skirt under the dress to add length and decorative detail!!

Bow Tie

  

The Fleamarket Raid

Sunday means fleamarket day! I know fleamarkets normally get a bad rep (alot of them definitely deserve it), you may be lucky enough to find a treasure trove of knick knacks! If you love DIYs and crafts, fleamarkets are the perfect place for you.                                      

I purchased all four of these shirts for the incredibly reasonable

 price of two dollars. "Those aren't very attractive..." you say? Oh don't you worry, I have major reconstructive plans for these abandoned clothes. The green tank? I'm thinking a headscarf. The "London" shirt will probably be converted into a nice comfy tank (stay tuned for my "British invasion post)! The destinies of the two button downs and the scarves are yet to be determined. If you're experimenting on a DIY project, I highly recommend thrifting for clothes at fleamarkets, Salvation Army, and Goodwill because if you accidently mess up then you lose a grand total of only about 50 cents. 

  

My new silver pocketwatch has got to be one of my favorite buys of the day. A few months ago, my parents got me a gorgeous pocketwatch necklace I had been begging them for. It was $30 so would expect it to last for a while, right? WRONG! The watch broke about two weeks after I received it in the mail. How much was the fleamarket pocketwatch? $8 including a replacement battery. Enough said ;) 

Since the first day of school is just around the corner (unfortunately), I had my eye out for quirky stuff to start the year off right with. First things that caught my attention were these super adorable bows that came in a rainbow of color and patterns. Best characteristic about the bows was their price, just one dollar each! An irresistable buy :) Next treasure I found were these unique flexible animal Iphone cases. I had never seen anything like them before! They're not only ridiculously adorable but they're soft and have plenty of padding to protect your phone. Grand total for each case: twelve well-spent dollars.

  

Next you get a chance, visit your local fleamarket (make sure it's safe though!) and see what treasures you can find! Make sure to share your discoveries with Quirky Trends :D

Cute Sweetheart Bow T-shirt

This shirt is one of my latest DIY creations. This Sweetheart Bow tee looks adorable with a high-wasted plain black skirt. It took me about 2 hours to make because I hand sewed the entire thing, but if you are lucky enough to have a working sewing machine at your disposal, this project should only take about 45 minutes or less.

Materials Needed for this Fun Project:

* 2 t-shirts (I used a Walmart medium polka-dot tee and an XL white tee for the bow) ~ $8

* Transparent nylon sewing thread ~ $2 (for an entire spool)



Approximate Total Cost: $10

Click on the link at the beginning of this post for the tutorial courtesy of melissaesplin.com :)