Home sustainable How I Upcycled White Shirts into a Dress, perfect for the COVIDSafe Summer

How I Upcycled White Shirts into a Dress, perfect for the COVIDSafe Summer

Hello December! And that also means a big hello for the summer!

I’m very happy today because not only that I will share with you another upcycled dress that I made recently, but because as of today is VIC State’s 32days of no new COVID case and no death.

And you know what that means?!

Victoria State is proudly welcoming the COVIDSafe Summer!

Queensland and New South Wales also opened their borders for us Victorians and that means, we can now enjoy more extended local travel to these two States.

Woot! Woot! What great news to celebrate 😊

Let’s talk about my DIY project, shall we?

What is the perfect way to repurpose those outgrown school uniform white shirts?

The best is to upcycle them all!

This COVID-19 restriction gives me so much time to enjoy sewing, designing, and creating content for my blog and for my wardrobe as well. I am not sure how many dresses I’ve made recently, some of them I’ve already shared here in my blog, others are still waiting to be flaunted.

This isn’t my first-time to upcycled outgrown school uniforms, and my previous upcycled dresses received a lot of great appreciation. And I am so grateful that many of you inspire to upcycle their clothes as well.

Months ago, my husband’s children released their outgrown uniforms. Some of the white long-sleeved shirts have stains on their sleeves, an occupational hazard. But the rest of the shirt’s fabrics are still good. And I don’t have the heart to just throw them into the bin, so I kept them for months until I got a clever idea to upcycle them.

I had twelve (12) pieces of white long-sleeved shirts, but in this project, I only used four (4) shirts.

I spent the day just removing all the buttons (they are still usable), and unstitching them.

Although I admit that unstitching them is quite a tedious job. But as the old folks always say “no pain, no gain.”

I picked a shirt that still in a good condition and removed its original long-sleeved. I used a lace fabric on-hand and decided to create a puff-sleeve for a more fun look. For the pattern, I used the one I found on Pinterest.

RELATED ARTICLES:Upcycling an Old Winter Uniform into a Dress

This is my sleeve pattern and I made it wider for a bigger sleeve.

I kept the front pocket and the collar, then attached the laced puff-sleeved. Then added an elastic to the ends of the sleeves to create a puffy look.

Then for the skirt, I patiently unstitched the shirts’ fabric and connected them all, together with my lace fabric for an unconventional look. I needed to create three (3) layers and connect them together to create a full skirt.

Pardon me for not explaining it step by step like a PRO, coz it is much easier for me to demo it in person than give direction in writing, lol.

As you noticed, the white fabric doesn’t look the same (proof that it came from different sources), but that’s alright coz that’s the point of upcycling.

And here’s the final dress!