The "Cabo" Dress Tutorial - T shirt refashion

I came up with this dress quite a while ago. It was so easy and cute, I decided to make a tutorial but I never got around to posting it. After seeing Disney's from Ruffles and Stuff adorablebeachcomber tutorial, I thought I would post it since it is essentially an adult version of her dress!

What you'll need:

- The biggest T-shirt you can find - at least XL

- elastic to fit around your ribs under your armpits

Directions:

1) Start with your T-shirt. It's very important that you get a giant one!

2) Cut the sleeves and collar off the shirt. Cut as little as possible off the top, or the dress will be too short!

3) Cut along the seams of the sleeves so they open up.

4) Now, sew the ends of the sleeves together to form a tube. This will be your ruffle! Also, sew up the sides of the shirt where you cut the sleeves off. Make sure you taper your seam down the bottom of the arm hole though, so you don't have funny puckers where your sewing ends.

4) Here comes the slightly tricky part. You need to attach the tube to the inside of the shirt so that it is inside of the t shirt, and so that you can flip it out and have both right sides facing out. Basically, we are attaching it and making an elastic casing with it.

Here is a close up (sorry it's sideways..) of the correct way to do this. If you pull the ruffle out from the shirt after you sew it (so it isn't inside of it anymore), the seams should look like this.

5) Now, pull the ruffle down over the right side of the dress. The right side of both the ruffle and the shirt should now be showing. Next, stitch along the top of the ruffle, leaving room between your stitch and the seam attaching it to the main dress for the elastic to be threaded though. Stop your stitch about half an inch before the place you started.

6) Through the gap you left, thread the elastic through the casing. Sew the ends together once it's through all the way.

7) Now, here's the creative part! You can leave it as is, like I did with this one, and pair it with an awesome belt. Or, you can make a casing around the waist and thread some elastic through.

Or, make braided straps and a belt like Disney did in her beachcomber dress!! I'm going to have to try that next :)

Check out this awesome fuchsia vintage belt - I got it for 2 bucks at a thrift store! I think it looks pretty great with the dress!

I think this dress would be especially cute in a navy blue, with a striped sash and braided straps like in Disney's tutorial. What do you guys think? If you make this, post your links!