Sewing for Monica: Upcycling The Giant Purple People Eater Maternity Shirt

If you'll remember a few posts ago (and many moons ago), I turned a mens dress shirt into a sun dress for Monica.  Monica hearts that dress and has even christened it "The Square Dress".  When Monica names a piece of clothing, it is automatically inducted into her personal Clothing Hall of Fame.

So, in the name of thrift, challenge, and cuteness, I took on another mens dress shirt repurpose a la this tutorial by Dana at Made.  I love the cap sleeves and the extra styling at the waist! 

While on my quest for the perfect shirt at a thrift store, I came across a ginormous, deep purple, button-down maternity shirt.  It was a little different from the mens shirt in that it did't have the yoke in the back, had a much boxier shape and sported short sleeves instead of long sleeves.  The only differnce that made an impact on the project was the short sleeves.  The cap sleeves are cut from the dress shirt's long sleeves (which I didn't remember while out on my thrifting escapade), so I had to improvise with some very Vera-looking fabric from the JoAnns quilting cotton wall, which I paired with a coordinating quilting cotton for the waist band.

I should have taken a pic of the shirt at pre-upcycle because the massive shirt to cute little dress transformation is fun to see. If you really want to get the full effect of the transformation, click this link to a similar shirt at The Purple Store. (Who knew there was a store for people who really really want and love purple stuff?  Caitlyn...this is definitely the URL for you!) Here are the results:

Definitely peruse Dana's tutorials and patterns. So cute and fun. In fact, I'll have the results of another Made tutorial soon...