For many families…they will be celebrating the 4th of July as a single parent. They have a spouse who is serving our country and find that while we are all enjoying our freedoms that make America great – they are juggling everyday to take care of the house, the kids, work and worry and wait until their soldier comes home.
Last week, my cousin Annette mentioned that my “Little Piece of Daddy” post from Earth Day would be a great project for those families. What a perfect way to keep Daddy close then for a little girl to wear one of her Daddy’s shirts. My girls loved this project when we made these for just that reason. It was a way to be close to their Daddy.
I thought it was worth repeating the first project I shared plus a new one with a t-shirt I made up last week. These are both really quick. Really easy. And your kids will love more than anything that they get to wear something of Daddy’s.
This camo t-shirt actually belonged to one of the Peas. To make it into a dress for Sprout, here’s what I did. First, I cut the sleeves off and followed the outline from one of her tank tops to give the armholes a correct curve and size.
Like this {only this was for the button down shirt dress I'll show you below. Same concept for construction.}
That will help you get the sizing down to a fit for your little one. I saved the sleeves. I cut the sleeves into strips, sewed a gathering stitch in hunter orange across the top (I say hunter orange like I meant to use that thread…I actually just didn’t feel like changing the thread colors plus I like a little pop of color on the camo) of each strip and pulled / gathered it to fit on the front of the shirt. I made 4 total strips.
You can see the top two strips I used the part of the sleeve that had the hem. The next two were left raw. It’s knit, it won’t fray much so it’s ok to leave as is. (and I’m a lazy sewer…I was going for the “a dress in 20 minute” look) I layered each row just under the last row until all 4 rows were sewn on.
Then I wanted to add a couple of little roses.
From the sleeves I cut off, I cut a couple of strips about 1/2″ wide. Starting in the center of my rose, I stitched right down the middle of that strip, slowly, and kept pulling and turning into a circle. As I sewed, I kept moving my last row out of the way so as not to stitch it down or over it. With my stitches down the center of the strip, you pull up the two sides to create your “petals” of the rose…make sense?
Then, with right sides together, I serged the dress from the bottom of the armhole down the cuts I had made to pull the dress back together. I left the armholes raw meaning I did not hem them or anything – just cut and left them. They roll in a bit on their own and it looks just fine. That’s it. A new dress in minutes…
Now, what dress is not complete without a cute pair of boots, right? Sprout has great fashion sense.
Now, another method is to use a buttondown shirt of Daddy’s and make it a sleeveless dress. Here, I added ruffles and some additional fabric to the bottom to make a skirt. {click on the photo and you’ll find the 411 from the original post on this shirt dress}
Thank you to all the wonderful men and women who serve our country in the military. Thank you to your families for the sacrifices they have made so that you can serve to keep us all safe. Freedom isn’t free and everyday, our family thanks you for giving us our freedom. May God bless you and hold you in the palm of His hand and carry you safely home.
"Dah bess erica!", Sprout. Translated, God Bless America
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!
xoxo,
Trish
