My Patchwork T-Shirt Dress

On Saturday I finished the patchwork dress I started back in April.  It’s the first time I’ve tried to make patchwork clothing and, while it was certainly a learning experience, I am pretty gall dang happy with how it turned out.  It is super comfy and quite colorful without being too aggressive.  The tie-dye and black contrast pleasingly.  It has nice deep pockets, of course.  The pockets are one of the features I love most about My Dress.

I immediately wore the dress two days in a row—Saturday and Sunday.  It had that shiny-new-dress-awesomeness going on.  I couldn’t resist.  I wore it again yesterday, basically as soon as it dried on the line.  It is a fabulous addition to my Me-Made-May wardrobe (and beyond).

There are four children’s tie-dye shirts and four adult shirts—three of which were black—in the mix. The youth shirts are old, old, old ones that never sold over the years in our tie-dye booth.  We were tired of dragging them around from show to show just for them to come home with us again.  I used one of my all-time favorite, but worn out and holey tie-dyes—the deep purple, green, and blue one—in the skirt.  In retrospect, that might have been a mistake.  It is much thinner, worn fabric when compared to the rest of the fabric.  It will probably be the first place holes will appear.  The black shirts, in both the bodice and skirt, were freebies I’d been given all of which had various logos on them.  I just avoided those as I cut the pieces I needed for my dress.   

[Note:  If anyone has any black t-shirts they’re looking to get rid of, hit me up.  I'll take 'em!  For rag rugs and other upcycling projects.]

I love having a serger.  It is a game changer for my sewing.  I wouldn’t have even attempted this t-shirt upcycled dress project without it.  I also think this is the first dress I’ve made with it from start to finish.  All the rest were made on my standard sewing machine, though I have retroactively finished many of the older dresses’ interior seams with the serger. It looks so professional and clean on the inside, too.

With my first successful patchwork garment behind me, I want to make a crazy-quilt style patchwork dress.  Crazy quilting always makes me think of my Grandma Nina.  It is her quilting specialty and it really suits my vibe, I think.