Made By Lex

I did this shirt last week. I took this men’s shirt that I had gotten and tailored it down. With the excess I added ruffles to the front.
I’m excited to wear it under a jacket.

Or myabe I’ll give it to my sister. It looks pretty good on her.

I have some BIG changes coming to my blog! I can’t wait to show you all. It’s really exciting!
I’m working on some big orders this week so my posting may not be too exciting or frequent. Bear with me, my friends

I saw this western-y dress for kids the other day and it inspired me to do this one. Let’s get started! Grab a men’s shirt.
Cut off the sleeves.

We need to create a chest band for the dress. Measure your child at the desired width. I like to make it a couple inches larger then normal, and account for the small amount you will loose when you sew it together. I cut out two pieces, about 4 inches wide.

Sew the two end pieces together so it makes one circular piece.
Fold it over, with the right side out and iron in half. This is your chest band.
Now we need to cut out the straps. Measure your child from where the chest band will be, from front, over the shoulder, to the back. Cut out 4 strips, about 2 inches wide.

Sew the long pieces together and turn them right side out. Iron them flat.
Now for the dress piece. Figure out how long you want the dress. Measure from the bottom of the shirt up and cut it where you need it.

Trim the bottom hem so it is straight.(Some shirts, like mine did here, had that rounded trim but I wanted it straight.)
Now for pockets. These are optional. Another thing you could do is if the shirts have preexisting pockets, you could cut those out and use those.

I cut out two pockets and two strips for hemtape.

The first thing i do is get a lining for the pockets. You could use the same material, I just love contrasting pocket lining. Pin it, inside out, to the pockets.
Sew them around the sides, leaving the top open. Turn them right side out. Then press them with an iron. I slightly gather the top in the center.
Get your hemtape.

Fold it over once in half.

Then open it up and fold the two ends in towards the center. Then press it closed and it will look like this.

Open it up and pin it to the top of the pockets, as shown.

Stitch the hemtape onto the pocket as close to the edge of the hemtape as you can get.

Now find where you want to put the pockets and pin them in place, and sew them on.

Now we are going to attach the chest band to the dress. We need to gather the dress. I do this by lengthening my stitch and setting my tension to the highest number.(like ruffling) you can also do it by hand.

Pin your chest band to the dress, right side together. Sew it on.

Here’s what you’ll have.

Now for the straps. Place your dress on your child so you can mark the placement in the front. Pin them where you want them to go. Then stittch them in place.

Now find out where you want them in the back. I did a cross over, but you can do them however you want. Stitch in place.

The last thing you need to do is finish the hem, if needed.

Here’s how it came out!!

I love the angled pockets.

It looks really cute, too, with a shirt under it, like a jumper.

The back.

Happy in her new getup!

I had this apron from Anthropologie that my sister had gotten me. I love the apron but keep getting my shirts stained because there is no top covering.

So I took an old men’s shirt, a lovely Brooks Brothers one, and made a top portion. Sorry for the sideways shot. I’m lazy today.

It came out really cute!

I made this for my little Ava today. The skirt was made one of my dad’s old shirts. I love how it looks like a tweed, but it’s a flannel. I wanted big pop-out pockets.

The are really in for adults right now, but I thought it would be so cute for kids, too. I lined them with an old shirt of Zach’s.

I had gotten this fabric from Harts and I fell in love with the polka dots. This fabric reminds me a lot of the European lines, like Catamini. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I finally figured it out.

I did the detail with the same old shirt of Zach’s.

I gathered the sleeves at top and added the alternating bias trim.
I also did a pleated detail at the 3/4 sleeve and added the trim there, too.

This is my favorite part. I love the detail of the fold over flap and these awesome snap buttons that I found.
And here she is in it!

With a lemon- zucchini cookie. (It was my bribe to get her to pose.)

Ava LOVES pockets. She has to have pockets in everything. So that’s what inspired me to do these for her.

Doesn’t she loo sweet in it?

I’m so happy with the way this came out. It’s so fun working on something ad then seeing where it takes you. I might work on a pattern for this one. I also think I”m going to do these pockets on a grown up version.

I also have the BEST women’s dress refashion coming up. So easy, interchangeable and you’ll LOVE it!

Here’s what it looks like. At this point, also cut the sleeves to the length you want it and the hemline to the length of the shirt you desire.

We’re, next, going to create the pocket for the elastic. I used my serger to finish the edge and then I fold it over and pin the entire neckline in place before I sew it. Make sure to leave an open pocket open to pull the elastic through.

Get your elastic and pull it through the neckline. The length will vary slightly. Mine was 32 inches.

Once you pull it through, sew the elastic ends together. Then sew your pocket shut. Here’s what you’ll have. We’re almost done. See! I told you this was easy!

Now we are going to finish off the sleeves. You could definitely just stitch them and leave be, but I wanted to add something a little different. I’ve been loving navy and white together so I wanted to make my hem tape out of navy. Determine the length you need, based off your arm band size, and cut a piece that length and about 4 inches wide.

Connect the two ends of one of the pieces and sew it together.

Then iron the seam allowences open so it doesn’t get too bulky.

What I do first is iron the band in half so I know where my middle is. Then I open it back up and iron the two edges towards the middle as shown.

Open the hem tape in and stuff your shirt sleeve into it and pin in place. You could gather the sleeve before hand by sewing machine or just use your eye to gather while you’re putting it in the hemtape.

Next, sew the sleeves, then finish the hem at the bottom of the shirt and you’re done!!

I think the possibibilites are endless on this one! I was thinking about adding some cute buttons to the sleeves, or addding a matching color to the hemline. You could embroider on it or put a pretty ruffle ontop of the buttons and cover that part up. This was such an easy shirt to do and I love the look of it. It’s classic and chic to me.

Here’s the blue sleeve and you cans see the slight texture to the shirt.

My sister, kindly (and begrudgingly) modeled it for me. I love it with a bright shoe that pops.


I also think it would look great with a belt around the waist.

Hope you enjoy! And please remember to add pictures to the flickr pool if you do it. I love seeing everyone’s take on these tutorials!