My Princess loves wearing dresses and if they have a skirt that twirls, all the better. We bought a simple plain t-shirt and with fabric already on hand made this adorable dress in less than a couple of hours.We followed the basic instructions in this tutorial from The Crafty Cupboard to make the dress. You could make this dress with the skirt attached at the waist, long waisted, or empire waist style. Since the skirt is a full circle, the length and width of the fabric needed would depend on where the skirt is to be attached to the t-shirt and length of skirt. After cutting the t-shirt the length desired (plus seam width), fold the shirt in half with sleeves together. Then fold in half again the same direction and measure the width of the folded cut line. This will be the measurement you use to cut the center circle of the shirt.

Fold the skirt fabric in half with the selvages together and then in half with the cut edges together to form a square. (Think cutting out paper snowflakes.) At the folded point (which will be the center of your skirt) measure the length you determined from the previous paragraph. Pivot from the center point marking the length at several points. Then using those markings, draw a quarter circle. Before you cut that circle, do the same thing from the center point to mark the length of the skirt and then cut both quarter circles.

We surged the waist and bottom edge of the skirt before pinning and sewing the skirt to the t-shirt. The surged hemline was easy to press under 1/2 inch and topstitch for a small hem. You can add a sash and ties to the dress if desired, but it works without as well. Check out the tutorial.

Back of dress with ties

We plan to make several summer dresses for the girls using variations of this method. A little friend’s birthday is coming up soon and she loves frilly, glittery dress up clothes to play in. So we used a variation of this same tutorial to make a fun play skirt. Only this time we made the waist slightly bigger and made one straight cut from the waist to the hem, turning under and top stitching these edges to make a wrap skirt. We added a waistband and stitched velcro on the waistband to make the skirt adjustable. This way she can wear it as she grows (or share it with her sisters!)