Tie dye for dress!

I made it back in one piece from our ski trip and got started on a dress for my daughter. I was inspired by one I saw on a friend's little girl that she got at Nordstrom. It looked so darn easy to make since all of it's seams are on the outside. And it was! I have a little tutorial here, minus any acurate measurements, just enough to get you inspired and start you on your way!

If you have walked into any store recently you will notice that tie dye is in big this season. I had a tie dye kit laying around the house for a few years, and my hubby had some old t-shirts that were in the Goodwill pile. I also had two boys size 14 shirts that were new and begging to be tie dyed! I only used one shirt for this dress, so keep your eyes peeled for more refashion ideas from the rest of the t-shirts.

So to get started, I took my white t-shirts and every 2-3 inches put a rubber band on.

I didn't have instructions with my tie dye kit, so I played it by ear, but the kit did come with dye in these bottles, so I added water, shook and squirted it on the shirts. I used two different colors and made five different shirts. WEAR gloves...it's messy!

After I dyed the shirts, I put them in a plastic bag to set for about 4 hours. I didn't rinse them, just put them right into the bag.

After four hours, I put the shirts into my washing machine and rinsed them out on hot water. I left he rubber bands on. Make sure, after you rinse the shirts in your machine, that you do a load with nothing after them. You can take that opportunity to put some vinegar in your machine and "clean" it out.

Here are the five shirts after they were rinsed, dried and the rubber bands were taken out.

Then I started with one of the smaller shirts. It was a child's size 14 L, and since I was making it for my daughter who is a size 6, I trimmed a bit off the sides. I also cut out the sleeves since I wanted to make this a long sleeve shirt.

I cut about an inch from the curve in the sleeve.

Then I took this shirt that I got at a garage sale for a quarter, and cut the sleeves off. I am still totally intimidated about making my own sleeves, so why reinvent the wheel, when it's done for me already?!

Then I attached the sleeves, leaving the seam on the outside.

I then cut about 6-8 inches off the bottom of the shirt to use for the midsection. I finished sewing the rest of my seam on the sides under the sleeves this time with a seam on the inside, not the outside.

I sewed around this section at the top, attaching the two.

I could have stopped there, making a shirt, but I wanted to keep going and make a dress.

So I took the bottom section of the tie dye shirt I already cut from. I took the side seams in about a quarter inch to give it more shape. You don't have to do this step.

Here it is all pieced together. I felt like there was too much pink in the middle, so I took that up by about an inch after this picture was taken. I then took the exposed seams and serged each of them up on my serger. You could skip this step if you don't have a serger, just use a zig zag seam on the edges.

And here's the finished product. I guess I shouldn't say finished, as much as I would say, here it is, ready for embellishments. I think it needs a few things...ruffles, a tiered skirt, a little reverse applique on the bodice? What do you think?