Converted Ready to Wear T-shirt/Dress with Horizontal Opening.
(Thanks to Loree Stickles Noonan for the directions and idea for this how to site.)
Materials Needed
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Any t-shirt or t-shirt type dress. I chose to convert a tank top that I bought at Target for about $7.00 on sale. This is perfect for those garage sale finds!
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About 1/2 yard (or less depending on how thin you want your fabric strips) of 100% cotton fabric. (I used woven quilting fabric, but I think you could use knit fabric with good results.)
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Fasteners of choice. Snap tape, long pronged snaps, sew in snaps, or buttons (4-6-size will vary depending on how wide your strips are).
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A sewing machine will make this project a lot easier, but you could do this by hand if you don't have a machine. A serger is nice (but not necessary) for finishing your inside seams if you have one.
Preparing the shirt/dress
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Take t-shirt/dress and wash and dry as you normally would to
take care of any shrinking. Iron flat. Draw line where you
want to make your cut. I make my line about six inches below my
nipples. You may wish to have your openings higher or
lower. Try your shirt on to see if the line is where you want it
BEFORE you cut!
Reinforce area with fusible webbing. A thin strip is all that you need. Make sure it is flexible like fusi-knit or armo-weft. Pelon will make your openings too stiff. Cut along line, all the way across the front. |
Click on thumbnail to enlarge. |
Click on thumbnail to enlarge. |
Open up your side seams about 2-3 inches (or more if your fabric strip is wider than that) above and below the cut line. (I used my scissors because this top was larger than I needed and I knew I would be taking in the side seams a bit. you can use a seam ripper if you don't want to take up any extra fabric when sewing it shut later on) |
Preparing your fabric strips
- Measure your shirt from side seam to side seam. This will be how wide your strips will be.
- Decide how long you want your top
strip to be. Take that measurement and add your desired seam
allowance. Now take that measurement and double it. This will
be the measurements for your top strip.
For example: I wanted my strip to be 4 inches long and I wanted 1 inch seam allowances. So I doubled those measurements for 10 inches total (2 X 4" + 2 X 1"seam allowances = 10 inches.) The total dimensions of my top strip was 10" X 24". Yours will be different, I'm just sharing for an example.
- For your bottom strip take your first top strip measurement (mine was 4") and divide that by half. Add your seam allowance and double that for your total length. So since I wanted a 4" strip on top, that meant I would need a 2" strip on the bottom. I wanted 1" seam allowances. I doubled that total for a 6" total. (2 X 2" + 2 X 1"seam allowances = 6 inches.) The dimensions for my bottom strip was 6" X 24".
| Fold your strips in half and press. |  |
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Press your seam allowances on the top and the bottom of both strips toward the inside of your strips. |
| Now is the time to add snap tape (or snaps) if you wish to use that for your fastener. Here are some pictures of how my strips look with the snap tape. | 
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Top flap
Bottom flap |
Apply
strips to the top and bottom of your t-shirt flaps, sandwiching the
t-shirt flaps in between the fabric strips.
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Make sure your top fabric strip completely covers your bottom fabric strip. You will need to play around with your flaps to make this happen. Once you have your fabric strips like you want them, pin them in place.
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| Sew your strips in place. I just sewed an 1/8" top stitch at the top of my fabric strips, catching the back part of the strip as I sewed. |  |
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Here are my finished flaps. Now is the time to add your fasteners. Put your buttonholes in the upper flap if you are going to use buttons. |
