Today I’m going to show you how I made this game day dress. I started with a thrifted men’s 2XL t-shirt. Unless your hips are 60 inches around like this shirt was, I promise you don’t need a shirt this big. You do want it to be at least 1.3 times your hips (and realize that by hips I mean the widest part, including your boo-tay, not your hip bones) so it won’t look like a pencil skirt.
So, I chopped the sleeves off my 2XL shirt, and it looked like this.
I folded my fabric in half, matching the armhole Us one on top of the other, then trimmed each so that they matched each other. Then I traced that shape onto a sheet of paper.
On my paper I drew out a pocket shape with the U at the center (on right) and then used that shape to draw the pocket lining (left). I cut these shapes out of the extra fabric from the sleeves. Now, I had a lot of extra fabric since this was a 2XL, so if you use a smaller shirt, you might need coordinating or contrasting fabric for your pockets. Woven or knit will work.
With right sides together, I sewed my pocket around the U.
Then I flipped it to the inside of the skirt and pressed it. After pressing, I topstitched around the opening to give it some more stability.
Then I sewed the pocket lining to the pocket around the curved edge, right sides together.
For the top of the dress, I used one of my standby patterns, New Look 6415. I think it’s out of print, but I’ve seen copies on ebay/etsy. It’s the best fitting raglan t-shirt I’ve ever made myself – not too tight, not to loose. I cut it off at the waist for this dress. If you didn’t want to make a t-shirt from scratch, you could cut off any t-shirt at the waist to attach the skirt.
Then I gathered the skirt, including the pocket area, and sewed it to the t-shirt top. I added the sequined ribbon belt and I was ready to go. No hemming since I used the original t-shirt hem.
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So cute! I really like this, especially how you did the pockets. Really innovative!
I also think it’s really cool that you support your husband and embrace the sport this way. I can’t relate to the football thing at all (being in Canada, land of hockey), but I really like that you clearly not only support what he does, but bring it into your own realm of interests too. It’s really great, and it’s totally made me think about ways that I can do that.
xo
Christy.
I absolutely LOVE this! Brilliant! We are K-Staters, so we will see you soon.
Thanks for sharing!
love the use of armholes for pockets! great dress melly!
I love that! And I love that you have a one-of-a-kind Longhorn dress.
I bought a strange tube-top thing ridiculously cheap at the Coop last weekend. Can’t wait to remake it into a skirt for my girl.
Ingenious! Going to look for XXL tee right now at Goodwill so I can sew a skirt now! Thanks so much for sharing.