mans shirt to childs dress

My parents live on the Mexican border in Arizona. My mom still goes to thrift shops and garage sales when she can and recently she picked up this men's Mexican dress shirt at a thrift shop and sent it to me (with a few other goodies, waiting to be refashioned). I thought it would make a cute dress for my daughter so here it is, start to finish with a few tips on how to make your own thrown in too!

If you can see, there were four pockets on the shirt. I started by seam ripping the top two pockets off.

Then I cut off the sleeves and the collar giving me some fabric to work with.

I took one of my daughters dresses and used it as a pattern

and this is what I came up with. I sewed the side seams up to the armpit holes and turned the top neckline under and made a casing for the elastic at the neckline. Then I prepared to make the sleeves.

I liked the detail on the cuff, so I wanted to keep that part of the sleeve in tact. So I cut the sleeve off halfway, and planned to make a puff sleeve. I must confess, I HATE sleeves. This dress would have taken me about 20 minutes to make if I wasn't so darn intimidated with sleeves. But I thought I would tackle it head on and face my fears, and I am glad I did. I don't have any magic solutions or tips for you to offer, sure wish I did. I just know I need to keep tackling my fear of sleeves and one day, they won't be so darn intimidating!

Here's the finished product.

I love the natural detail of the shirt. Don't you?!