Sweater Dress to Shirt Refashion Tutorial

Hello all! Today we have a really quick and easy dress to shirt refashion. It should be straight forward. The only thing of concern is that I am refashioning a sweater dress. Fingers crossed everything doesn’t unravel!

So, I’m a mom and I’m older. As such, I tend to not wear styles as youthful as I once did. Especially since the only places I’m going to these days are the office, the kids’ school and daycare, and the grocery store. (Thank you pandemic!)

I have this sweater dress that I used to love to wear. However, the butt area is a bit too form fitting and short for me now. I’m self-conscious wearing it so I just don’t wear it anymore. I still like the way it fits, so I’m going to cut the skirt part off and turn it into a sweater shirt. Here we go!

Material:

• sweater dress
• matching thread

The skinny:

This is a knit piece that I’m taking scissors to. There’s also several belt loops knit into the dress itself. I don’t want it to unravel, so I will have to pay close attention while cutting.

Step by Step:

1. Try on your dress and see where you want the bottom of the shirt to fall. Mark it with a pin or chalk. I’m going to cut mine along the change in knit pattern just above the pockets.

2. Cut along your line. There’s surging on my dress, so I’m going to turn it inside out and cut just below the surge line to help prevent things from unraveling.

3. If you are refashioning a sweater dress, use a thicker sewing needle on your machine to try and prevent any needles breaking. Then sew a zigzag stitch all around the bottom hem of the shirt. Tug the fabric gently as you sew to give the fabric a little more room to stretch. This stitch will hopefully prevent any fraying. I did this twice.

All done! A sweater to shirt refashion is now in the books. That was so easy!

My housekeeping notes:

Denim/Jeans 16 (100) Needle: settings, 03, 5.0, 2.5