DIY Heatwave Dress: How to Sew a Strapless Mini Dress from a Shirt
This past July I decided to try a no-buy challenge. For the entire month, I kept my budget tight and didn’t purchase a single non-essential item. My No-Buy July, as I called it then, was great for my pockets but it turned out to be even better for my creativity.
I’m guilty of browsing eBay when I’m bored, looking at outfits on Pinterest wishing I had that pair of shoes or that bag, and going to the thrift store when I have no other plans for the weekend. It’s easy to get excited about new clothes, especially when we attach clothing to our identity, but they’re never really satisfying, and I find myself falling into the trap of wishing and wanting yet again, this time with emptier pockets. This could be a soliloquy on consumerism or the rantings of an insatiable recent grad who may fit the infamous description of the “single Black female addicted to retail” a bit more than I’d like, but I promise this is a sewing tutorial.
During No-Buy July, whenever I found myself wanting to go out and spend money, I spent some time pushing aside screechy hangers on the clothing racks inside my own closet… and then my family’s closets (sorry). I found my parents’ vintage leather jackets, my brother’s oversized sports jerseys, and a pair of colorful tights I’d never seen before. It felt like thrifting, and while I loved picturing fall outfits, deep down I was looking for something that felt like summer. Then, in the hallway closet of discarded clothes on their way to the Goodwill, I found it. Summer materialized in a cotton blend.
What I had found was simply a white long-sleeved shirt with a floral pattern, but inspiration grabbed a hold of me and I had a vision for the perfect summer dress. The floral pattern reminded me of the fruit print outfits I had seen everywhere at the beginning of the season, and there was just enough fabric for a dress, but it would have to be teeny tiny. I was thinking strapless. I imagined a fit and flare silhouette, nothing too tight like a bodycon dress. I didn’t even bother with my usual routine of making a sketch and writing up a plan. I just grabbed my fabric scissors and got to work.
The Process
1. Deconstruct the original seams
As with any upcycling project, you gotta break things down before you can build them back up again. For this project, I wanted to keep fabric waste low and use as many of the original seams as I could. To start, I cut off the sleeves which I saved for a future project. Then, I cut off the neck binding and the shoulder seams. What I was left with was essentially a tube of fabric.
Cutting off sleeves
Cutting off neck binding
Cutting off shoulder seam
2. Create a straight neckline
My next step was to fold over the extra fabric that was left up top to create a straight neckline. I did this making sure that the dress was the ideal length, and not too long or short. At this point, I considered cutting off the excess fabric but decided to leave it so that the chest was lined.
Outside view of folded neckline
Inside view of folded neckline
3. Sew a tunnel for an elastic band at the back of the dress
I hate it when strapless outfits slip and I have to restrict my movement or factor frequent readjustments into my daily activities. I knew that if I wanted this dress to truly be wearable, I would have to add an elastic band to keep it secure. I chose to only add elastic to the back of the dress, preferring to keep the front of the dress as smooth and seamless as possible (and to conserve the little amount of white elastic I had in my swing kit). On the back of the dress, I stitched ⅜ of an inch from the folded edge, just wide enough to fit a ¼ of an inch elastic.
Stitching for elastic tunnel
4. Close the original armholes
With the elastic tunnel sewn, I sewed the original armholes closed to connect the front and back to each other. This made the dress ready for the first try on.
Original armhole pinned right sides together
Original armhole sewn closed
5. Try on and stitch the sides
At this point, I put on my half-finished tube dress to get a sense of how it was fitting and where I wanted to place my new side seams. With a handful of safety pins, I pinned the fabric to get the fit and flare shape I desired, form-fitting around the chest and waist but voluminous around the hips. If you have a dress, or a shirt and a pair of bottoms you like the fit of, you can also lay these on the fabric and trace them to mark your new side seams.
With the dress all pinned, I sewed along the pins with a zig-zag stitch, making sure to stop sewing right before I reached the elastic tunnel. I used a zig-zag stitch because these flexible stitches hold up well under tension, making them ideal for stretch fabric seams. After sewing, I trimmed the excess fabric and used the trimmings as a guide to outline and sew the other side.
Safety pins marking the side seam
Side seam after being sewn and trimmed
6. Insert the elastic and sew it in place
With both sides sewn, my next step was to insert the elastic with the tried and true safety pin method. When this was done, I was finally able to sew the elastic channel closed, catching the tail ends of the elastic in the seam.
Elastic band fed through the tunnel using a safety pin
Elastic band sewn into the side seam
7. Try on the dress and make finishing touches
With the dress complete, I tried it on to check the fit and take note of any final touches I wanted to make. As a last-minute addition, I decided to hand-stitch a line of gathers in the center front to make the strapless neckline a little less severe. I don’t have a picture of this step (I was talking on the phone and forgot to document it—my bad) but I'd be happy to create a sewing basics library that gives in-depth instructions on how to hand sew gathers and other useful sewing techniques. It took less than five minutes, but I love how it softens the silhouette of the dress and adds just a little bit of texture and shape.
I hope this post was helpful and informative for anyone interested in making their own clothes, and that it encourages you to look at the items you already own with new eyes. Upcycling and altering my clothes was how I learned how to sew clothing, so I think it’s a great place to start for anyone who would like to learn. If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them in the comments below. Until next time, happy sewing!
Sincerely,
Selam
