How To Make An Easy Dress (For Cheap!)

Two facts about me:

I'm cheap.

I love dresses.

I wear dresses probably 6 days out of the week. It's not that I one day just decided to wear dresses to feel cute and girly. Far from it. I spend a lot of time sitting at home, knitting, crocheting, painting. I also spend a lot of time in the car traveling across the country. I absolutely hate the feel of jeans around my knees.. Ugh. The thought of it makes me grumpy.


Dresses are so comfortable, I can sit around the house and feel comfortable and cute. That's the best.

The only problem.. they are expensive! Now.. to me, 19.99 is expensive. I told you. I'm cheap. So I started making my own dresses, and skirts, for under 6 dollars each!

Here is a tutorial on a High Waisted Dress:
For under 6 bucks!

Step 1: What You Need

First you will need a ribbed tank top.
I got mine from Walmart for 2.50
You could also use a t-shirt
3 yards of matching fabric.

Clearance section is my favorite. I got three yards for 3.00 total!

Comments

[fheaven]

nice.. Im a plus size girl so its kinda hard to look for good dresses that fits me.. so im searching to make one for my self and this is a very good idea! thumbs up!

[grannyjones]

This looks like a job for the cool gathering foot that came with my new serger.
(plenty of "practice" fabric, so I don't have an "Oh, NOOOO" moment)

[nbryant2]

This is wonderful and so easy! I think I'm going to attempt to make one for a wedding I'm going to this weekend!

[lsophie]

Looks great!! Am gonna try! Thank you!!!!!

[taransa]

Made two of these over the weekend! Your instructions were great!

I had trouble getting the ruffles to work so I did a freehand pleat instead - worked well for me.

This got me thinking ... Walmart and I am sure other stores as well have ribbed "thermal" type shirts as well ... This could be modified to have a longer skirt and be made to go with a sweater or something for easy cool weather wear as well :)

Thanks so much for sharing, this was a wonderful way to breathe some new life into my warm weather wardrobe while being easy on the pocket book! <3

(yea, one is shorter than the other ... I had cut corners off both ends of the yardage and had to trim it down :P still just past knee length though on the black one)

[mainejewel]

this will be a great use for a couple of skirts I want to convert.

[MiltReynolds]

What a great instructable! I got a it confused about the ruffle-making part, but visited the link to your blog and it made it clear. Well done, and very attractive! (The dress, too!)

[lilBoomBOom]

Very Beautiful.
The Dress definitely suits you too. Looks like a money maker!

[willow.narwhal]

These look so cute and so easy to make! Are they itchy at all on the inside where the fabrics meet?

[Talk2thetrees]

I'm not too sure, I always wear undershirts... but after washing the fabric it isn't too itchy. :)

[fierdashleo]

This is lovely. Simple ingenious patterns like this encourage everyone to sew. Thank you.

[signalelektronik]

Cute!

[Tokage Hideto]

Beautiful AND smart, that's not fair! No one can compete hahaha

[Meesy7]

I made one with a tank top and and a too-big-for-me dress ^_^ It turned out super cute and I love it! Thanks for the tutorial!
-Meesy

[jkb55]

So cute!!

[pheenix42]

Nice to see that skirts and dresses haven't fallen out of fashion, or practicality--a lady where I work at wears an ankle length skirt many times, and it just looks so nice!

As a guy with a sewing machine, I'm putting this on my faves list!

[madenairy]

i completely agree with u, u are cute!

if u ever find yourself in ayrshire...
oh, sorry got side tracked, great 'ible!

[belsey]

I'm definitely going to try this, it's exactly my style of sewing, I'm much too lazy to do all the painstaking measuring, and marking, and ironing, and basting.... and why bother when you can get this kind of result without the trouble?

[MicioGatta]

Really smart .)

[Alphonsus]

Are you ever beautiful. wow.

[Talk2thetrees]

Aw, you are so sweet. :)

[jessyratfink]

I'm so excited to see this here! This tutorial has been in my bookmarks for ages - it's great!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

This is darling! And so easy to make! I've been wanting to make clothes, but I've had no idea where to start. This looks like a great way to ease my way into making clothes!