dress shirt to Paper Bag Skirt - TUTORIAL

I love love love this skirt, but I really don't like the shirt my daughter was wearing or that she was fighting with me so much about taking the photos.  grrr... child.  

Anyway...

Here it is

Items Needed:

One dress shirt.

elastic

thread

ribbon

bias tape

Here is the shirt I used.  It has a really fun detail on the front.

 Close up of the ruffle detail.

 Cut the bottom part of the shirt off, just under the arms.

 Run a straight stitch down the edge of the button closure so there are no holes.

I'm pretty sure my sewing machine needle shouldn't be bent like this.  hmmm.

Take it to your ironing board and iron edge down a 1/4 inch.  Fold it another 1/4 inch and iron one more time.  Then, fold down 2 inches and iron again.  This is so you do not have a raw edge exposed and it doesn't fray in the laundry (I forgot to take a picture of this part).

Sew the part you just ironed down, leaving a 1 inch gap to thread your elastic.  Sew another line a little more than 3/4 inch above the your last line.  This is to make your elastic casing. 

 Cut a piece of elastic an inch longer than your child's waist measurement and thread it through your casing.  Sew it closed.

Using black double fold bias tape, make a few belt loops (I made four).  and sew them down evenly around your skirt.

Thread a piece of ribbon through the belt loops.

Here is a closer look at what the top hem of your skirt will look like.  

I'm going to make another one of these with another shirt this week.  I'll post more details pictures soon.