What can a person do with a t-shirt? Wear it with jeans, wear it to bed, wear it bowling. Maybe jazz it up with lace or fabric and make it less t-shirtish. Of course, there’s always paint, iron-on transfers and embroidery to change the look of a plain t-shirt. Some people rip off the sleeves, cut holes and shred the bottom edge to make it look unique.

Me? I have found a great new technique to make a t-shirt something really special – add a skirt and make it into a dress. Yes, there is a dress hiding in almost every t-shirt, a unique, individual, one-of-a-kind dress.

The skirts can be long, short, tiered, ballooned, anyway you want. The trick is simply attaching the skirt to the t-shirt and voila, a dress is born!

Recommended reading: Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses by Sweet Seams. This book has more than 25 ideas with patterns for t-shirt dresses of all kinds.

I have been in the sewing room creating dresses galore for two granddaughters, Marie and Kay. I got the t-shirts either on sale or at Goodwill (which means they were very inexpensive). Adding the special skirt to enhance the shirt makes the dress completely personal. And it becomes almost addictive! I can easily make a dress a day.

Here is one week’s work:

   Wouldn’t it also be fun to take a loved and favored t-shirt and make a dress out of it? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful gift for a special child or grandchild?