DIY Friday: How to Make a Cute Colour-Block Dress From Two Ugly Shirts

Hello there lovelies,

Happy belated DIY Friday! Apologies that I'm running so late, but I had a very relaxing Friday this week, and I was loathe to disturb it for anything, even blogging. Anyway, this DIY project was inspired by my new work shirts. A few weeks ago we got new flashy work uniforms with our names embroidered on them! I'm pretty happy because I've never had a name on my shirt before, but I was initially stumped about what to do with my incredibly ugly old work shirts. We were required to wear polo shirts, and the only ones I could find on short notice were a couple of brightly coloured men's ones. Then I got to thinking - what trend can I approach with two brightly coloured polo shirts begging for a refashion? Colour-blocking of course! This is how I made my two ugly shirts into a cute colour-block dress:

Equipment required for this project: Two loose-fitting polo shirts/t-shirts, tailors chalk, something to measure a straight line with (a ruler, or even Australian Sky & Telescope magazine should suffice), scissors, and a sewing machine.

First, take the shirt that will make up the top and bottom of your dress. Draw a line with your tailors chalk straight across the shirt about an inch from the bottom of the armpit. Cut your shirt into two pieces, and keep both. Take your second shirt, and repeat the line & cutting about an inch below the armpit. Now, cut off the bottom hem of the second shirt as well (sorry I don't have a picture of this, but they turned out crazy blurry for some reason!). You should have a tube of shirt left from the second shirt.

Now, we're going to create the bodice of the dress, and get rid of this ugly collar. I wanted a nice round, low neck for my dress, so I marked a u-shape with my tailors chalk, finishing an equal measurment from both shoulder seams. Cut out the u-shape.

My shirt also had pretty ugly hems on the sleeves, so I cut those off too.
Now line up your pieces, and bask in the glory of how awesome your dress is going to be! Then, get down to sewing business. You need to sew the bodice of the dress to the middle piece, and the middle piece to the bottom piece. You'll need to sew the pieces right sides together, so that your messy seam is on the inside of the dress, not the outside (the right side of the fabric is the side you're going to see).

Ta-da! Now all that's left is to hem your neckline & sleeves, and get on with looking awesome!

I styled my dress with a waist belt (Trade Secret, $12.95), an owl necklace (Trade Secret, $4.95), and a pair of brogues (Trade Secret, $19.95). What would you style yours with? Do you like the colour-blocking trend that's making the rounds? If you make one of these yourself, will you send me pictures? Please? I hope you do!

Until next time, xo.