I started off with this picture from pinterest as the original inspiration:
I then took my daughter to our local Hobby Lobby to pick out her choice color of ruffled fabric. She picked out a bright pink (shocking, I know), and we went in search of a black t-shirt to put with it. I bought about 19 inches of fabric, but I could have about about 12-15 after I ended up chopping some off the length later. I already knew that I had a black and white patterned ribbon to go with it at home. After looking at a couple stores, I finally found a black short sleeved shirt at Walmart for $3.88.
When I got started I laid out the t-shirt on the table and measured three times the t-shirt width for the fabric width. I figured this would give me a little room to pleat the skirt a little to give it more volume (my daughter has to have dresses that spin or it's just unacceptable by her standards). then folded and pinned the fabric in half to ruffles out to make the first stitch of the seam. One word of warning, make sure that the ruffles are laying the correct way before stitching, or you will sew them to lay in correctly. I just ran the seam through my sewing machine using a straight stitch.
For some reason, my pictures are not showing up as the edited versions that I have saved to my computer. Sorry for having to crane your neck from side to side to look at the pics! Back to the dress...
Then I flipped the skirt inside out to make an inside seam to make the seam more sturdy, as well as, cover up the excess from the first seam. I think this is called a french seam, but I am now sure. For those who know, feel free to call me out! ;) I made another straight stitched about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in to be sure that I covered up all the extra. Once finished, I flipped it right side out again to reveal a nice little seam! :)
I then cut off the bottom of the shirt leaving about 3-4 inches below the sleeves (Save what you cut off for project I will do later this month!). This will get rid of excess fabric from shirt to make the sewing much easier. I then lined up the seam of the skirt with the seam on the side of the shirt and pinned it. I pulled the fabric out so it laid it half and took the end and pinned it to the other side seam of the shirt. After this, I pulled the fabric up to find the middle of the fabric between to two sides of shirt and pinned it to the middle of the shirt. I figured this was the easiest way to make sure the skirt fabric was evenly distributed around the shirt. After those three pins, I made two pleats per side and pinned them. I did the same to the back of the shirt, then sewed a straight stitch to secure the fabric.
I added the ribbon to the shirt just sewing over the front half leaving the back half open to tie to the size needed for my daughter. I learned the hard way from a past project to not sew a ribbon all the way around a shirt, if you want your child to be able to squeeze into the shirt. T-shirts are made to stretch for a reason!
The finished project, while it doesn't quite look like the original, turned out pretty cute!! My husband was surprised and impressed that I made it! I can't wait to pair it with a cute pair of black leggings (the ruffled fabric is a little sheer) and see it on my daughter. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling too well and wasn't up for a photo shoot. :(
Overall, this ended up being way easier than I thought and took under from start to finish. Much cheaper than buying one from the website! One recommendation I would make is buy two sided ribbon. My ribbon is one sided, so when I tie the bow, it doesn't show the decoration on one side. Not horrible, but definitely a note for next time. I am also thinking to cut the fabric shorter and make some ruffle shirts for summer. :)
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