Shirt Dress...or...ummm...Shirt Shirt?

Making a little girl's dress out of Daddy's old button down shirt is nothing new.  Although this dress is, in fact, a little girl's shirt.  Because the dress looked like a nightgown.  And nightgown chic is not something we're ready to attempt.

Depending on the angle and light, from a distance this shirt looks blue, or white, or pinstriped, but up close it has a really neat woven texture with shiny white, pale blue, and also charcoal threads in it.

I didn't realize how long this shirt had been kicking around until I cut the button placket off and found where my husband's mom had written his name.  HA!!!  That dates this shirt back to at least 1999.  I thought about trying to work in the name somewhere, but then I started to feel a little embarrassed that I still had a shirt that probably hasn't seen any action in at least ten years sitting around.  But then I just told all of you about it so I guess I'm not THAT embarrassed after all.

The pattern is self drafted.  It's actually a hack of a pattern of my own.  The original, which I haven't really shown here yet, is a full front piece with one button at the center of the low back.  I modified it so that the low back is one piece and the front is two with the button placket down the middle.

The sleeves turned out a bit Anne Shirley but the full skirt (I used the entire width of the original shirt) balances them out in a nice way.  I used the original cuffs, too.  Kept the height and shortened the length (Is that right?  I moved the button in but kept the wrist to elbow length - if that makes more sense.).

Now I'm off to tackle a long awaited (on their part) and dreaded (on mine) glitter project.  Glitter is my frenemy, but I can hold her off no longer.  Wish me luck and a quick clean up.