T-Shirt Reconstruction: Tank Top into Girl's Dress

 Don't ask me why I uploaded this picture sideways...but you get the idea...it's a tank top. A tank top that is waaaay too small for me anymore (thank you baby #2), but I love superheroes and I wanted to do something with it. I decided my daughter needed a Super Girl dress.  This tutorial can be done with a tank top or shirt that already fits your child as well.

Step 1: I took two adult t-shirts (one a Medium and one a XL) and cut the bottoms off of them so that I had two tubes of fabric. One tube is noticeably smaller than the other one. This is intentional. If your t-shirts are the same size, cut one and sew it back up smaller so that you have about the ratio you see here. The combined length of these two tubes should be however long you want the skirt part of your dress. 

Step 2: Try the tank top on your child and cut it off just below the chest. Step 2.5: If it is too big for your child, like this one was for my daughter, cut it in the middle of the back and bring it in.

Step 3: Gather up the top of the smaller tube of fabric until it is the same size as the bottom of your cut tank top and then sew them together. You can stop here if you want to make a simple dress or cute top but if you want a tiered dress, continue. Step 4: Do the same thing to the larger tube of fabric and attach that to the bottom of the smaller one. I didn't have to hem this because I left the factory-finished hem on the bottom of the t-shirt.


Step 5: Adjust the straps to fit your child. I left the straps how they were after bringing in the back of the tank top. I liked the "V" it made. You can also cut them off and attach them at the sides like a traditional tank top. Whatever you want!

I'll admit I did some other tailoring to this one to get the tank top to fit my daughter better (there are some darts in the chest) but you don't have to do that, especially if you start using one of your child's tank tops.