Materials needed:

White Baby T-Shirt
Approximately 12 inches of calico, depending on length desired. Calico should be about 30 inches wide.
A few pieces of fabric with clear designs, such as kitties, ducks, or flowers.
A yard or so of fusible webbing.
Tulip Dimensional Paints in colors of your choice.
Needle and thread or sewing machine.

Procedure:

Step One: Wash, dry and iron the t-shirt and fabrics.

Step Two: Fold up one long edge of the calico strip approximately 1/4 inch and iron it. Fold that edge one more time and iron again. With needle and thread (or sewing machine), stitch a hem into place.

Step Three: On the other edge of the fabric, run a loose running stitch through the fabric, and gather the fabric so that it is ruffly. Pin this edge of the ruffle to the bottom edge of the teeshirt. Stitch firmly into place using an overcast stitch or.. a sewing machine.

Step Four: Stitch the opening at the back of the ruffle closed.

Step Five: Lay your design fabric on top of the fusible web and iron the web into place as per the instructions on the peel off side of the webbing. Cut out the motifs you like from the webbing/fabric and peel the backing from the webbing. Arrange the motifs on the front and back of the t-shirt, then iron into place.

Step Six: Using dimensional paint, paint a line on the edge of each motif, making sure to cover the edge of the fabric as well as part of the t-shirt. This will prevent the motifs from peeling off.

(Optional) Step Seven: Paint dots and squiggles and swirls on the shirt around and between the motifs.

(Optional) Step Eight: You can make two more ruffles similar to the skirt, but only one or two inches wide, to stitch to the sleeves.

And that's it, it's really a very simple craft that takes very little in the way of expertise. I've done this project with a group of eleven to thirteen year old girls who had never sewn a stitch in their lives and their dresses came out beautifully.

This craft can be adapted for adults, using more fabric and a larger t-shirt, but I recommend a sewing machine when working larger, as the stitching would get rather tedious.

Cost: About $8 if using a brand new t-shirt and fabric from the fabric store. Pennies if you dip into your scrap bag and get the shirt at a thrift store.

Time: Depending on how fast you can hand sew, anywhere from about one hour to two hours.

Recommended for: Adolescents through adults. Younger children could help with making painted dots and swirls on the shirt.

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