When Skies Are Grey....T-shirt Turned Dress

The inspiration for this dress was actually a pillow. I was thinking of doing something similar and thought an old t-shirt would make an easy pillow form that could be written on with a bleach pen.

I found this super soft long sleeved grey shirt at a thrift store.

Somewhere between buying the shirt and starting the pillow, I saw this red and white outfit in a catalog and decided that the grey shirt really wanted to become a dress for my daughter.

I found one of her knit dresses and used it as a pattern.

Originally, I was just going to do a sleeveless tunic, but the skirt on the dress that I used to make the pattern was fuller than the t-shirt. So I decided to use the sleeves to add to the skirt volume.

I just turned the sleeves upside down so the widest part was at the bottom. When I cut then straight at the bottom hem, the little bit of extra fabric was the perfect shape to make a little sleeve.

A few seams and a gathered waist later, and here is the finished dress shape.

Now for the FUN part!

I decided to write lyrics from You Are My Sunshine because I love it AND because of the whole "when skies are grey" part seemed to fit well with the grey dress. I also got an idea to work a bright sun into the design somewhere.

Here's the front if the dress in process. When I saw pink on the edges, I decided it had probably done all that it was going to do.

And here is the front of the dress after I washed off all the bleach. I never guessed it would turn pinkish red!

I added more lyrics to the bottom of the dress but need to decide where else I want to add them. I also still intend to add a sun somewhere, but now I might rethink the colors I'll use. It may be awhile before I have time to play around with it again. I'll keep ya posted!