Shirt Dress Tutorial

I'm not sure what to call this: the Suri Dress Tutorial? It's a shirt dress, but that's what Dana called her Shirt Dress, which is where a lot of the inspiration came. Maybe "Super Easy Shirt Dress Tutorial"? Any suggestions?

Ok, here's what you'll need (besides a sewing machine and thread, obvs):
A shirt- I used a size small for Brighton's black and gray dress, the one in this tute is an XL

elastic (I used 1/4")

measuring tape, pins, rotary cutter or scissors
and stuff for embellishments

And 10 minutes, if you can spare them.

1. Cut the sleeves off your shirt, right next to the seams.

2. Cut the seams off of the sleeve, leaving the shape intact.

3. Measure 1" away from the "armpit" (or more if you want longer sleeves) and cut straight across.

Just like this.

4. Measure 1" from the top edge of your sleeve and cut off, creating a straight edge on the top of your sleeve. I didn't do this with the first one, and the neck was a little awkward. So, you don't HAVE to do this, it just makes things a little bit easier. Repeat on the other sleeve.

5. Lay your sleeve next to the arm hole and mark with a pin where the top of the sleeve hits.

6. Fold your shirt in half lengthwise.

7. Using your pin marker from the sleeve, cut it straight across.

8. Measure down about 1 1/2" on your folded edge and create a curved neckline for your dress. You can do the neckline in one step if you want!
9. Turn your shirt (now, dress body) inside out and place a sleeve in the arm hole, right sides together, lining up the seams in the arm pit.
10. Pin in place. You can see the top straight edge of the sleeve will NOT be pinned into the dress body. It will become part of the neckline.

Your sleeve should look like this!11. Sew the sleeves in, making your dress look like a short sleeved boat neck shirt.

12. Fold the neckline in 1/2" towards the wrong side to create a casing for elastic. Be sure to leave a few inches open!

13. Thread your elastic through using a safety pin, or an elastic threader if you've got one.
14. Figure out how big to leave the neckline by trying it on your little one. Or just guess if they're a big stinker and you don't want to wrestle with them and your dress full of pins. Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew your casing closed. Now you have a cute neckline to your dress!

15. Fold your dress in half, on itself. So your dress top will be sandwiched between the bottom half of your dress. See inside there? That's the inside of the dress top.
16. Pin your fabric together, but be sure not to get all the layers together. We're going to create a casing for the waist.

17. Sew around your fold, leaving an opening for your elastic to go through.
18. Turn your dress right side out, and find your waist band opening.
19. Thread some elastic through. Have your little one try it on again or just guess how big to leave the waist, sew the ends of the elastic together, and sew your casing closed (on the inside of the dress).

20. And there you go. Embellish however you'd like and you have a dress just like Suri Cruise would wear (but a heck of a lot cheaper!)

PS- I picked up a bunch of shirts on clearance at Walmart- The black and gray shirt was $3 and this gray and pink one was $1. Hurry! They were out of the black and gray when I went back this past weekend.

*Edit 8/13/2012: Just saw that this was getting pinned onto Pinterest so I wanted to put in here that Brighton is almost 5 and wearing this dress now. It fits her pretty perfect and she's mostly average in height and weight. You could always get two shirts if they're super cheap and add a ruffle on the bottom if you're making it for a girl who's taller or older. Enjoy!

Peas!

Now that Mason is 6 months old, he can expand his food choices- and we decided to start with peas. I find that it's better to start with the more "yucky" tasting veggies as opposed to the sweet ones that they'll definitely love, like sweet potatoes and squash, just to get them to learn to love the "yucky" ones.

Yum, peas!

Oh, maybe not so yummy?

Brighton seemed to be feeling a little left out (and we kept saying how yummy the peas were) so she wanted to try some and have HER picture taken. Open up!

This isn't even the best face she made! Dale wasn't quite fast enough. Her face was utter disgust. She said, "it's yucky!"

She was a little mad at me for tricking her.
Mason decided that he liked the peas better than his rice cereal. He slurped down those peas, no problem, after just a few tastes.

Mason's 6 Months!

Mason turned 6 months old last Friday. Where has the time gone? I've said this before, but he's growing so fast I barely have time to take pictures or write in his baby book. I just can't believe it's already been 6 months! My baby just celebrated his half birthday!

Mason is turning out to be one awesome little boy. He's, for the most part, always happy, a great eater, great napper, and very mobile for one who doesn't crawl yet. I'm not sure how he rolls SO FAST but he's across the house in a matter of seconds.

He's very strong too! He pushes himself all the way up on his arms (is it Up Dog?) and is slowly bringing those knees up under him. He's gotten up on all fours a few times, I'm just too slow with the camera. But he may be crawling soon- I'm not sure if I can handle that!

Mason talks ALL THE TIME! Mostly in giggles, but he's saying a lot of nonsense goo-goo sounds. Hopefully he'll say mommy, unlike his older sister who didn't have a name for me for 18 months.

He's still sucking on everything. You can't pick this boy up with out him sucking your arm, shirt, neck, hair, or whatever else happens to be in the vicinity of your shoulder. I always have to have a bib on him, or a burp cloth handy to keep myself from being attacked.

And he's a major drooler! Still hasn't stopped, and with no teeth lurking anywhere near, it's going to last for a long time.

He reaches for his toys and complains when Brighton takes one away. We've been trying to teach her that if she takes one from him, she needs to give him a new one. That seems to be working. He was getting really angry in the above picture because his toy was just out of reach.

If I leave Mason to roll around the living room, he some how always manages to get stuck under something. Mostly my chair. This is a typical hiding spot for Mason.

I think he's taking up some pointers from the dog who stays under the coffee table to avoid Brighton.

Mason has discovered his feet! Brighton never had any interest in her toes, but Mason is in this position for most of the day. He's almost sitting up on his own, so that will make things interesting for him once he's got that mastered. And he's pretty good at standing when he's holding our hands.

I got on the scale with him and it says he weighs about 20 pounds. I know! He's humongous! I'll have to get you his exact stats when he's goes to the Dr. for his 6 month check-up. He's wearing his 6-12 month clothes and they're fitting him pretty perfectly right now. Brighton didn't hit 20 pounds until she was over a year old- Mason is beefy!