men's shirt refashion to overall dress

I’ve been thinking about making an overall dress for a while now. I see people wearing them out and about and they always look so comfy but also so cute and put together.

corduroy overall dress: men's shirt refashion

I also think an overall dress is the perfect all-season layering piece. You can put it on over a t shirt or crop top in the summer or layer it over a sweater and leggings in the winter.

men's shirt refashion upcycle to corduroy overall dress

men's shirt refashion to corduroy overall dress

When I found this soft corduroy men’s shirt at the thrift store, I thought it would be a great chance to give making an overall dress a try. I love how the corduroy gives the basic overall dress some interesting and fun texture.

corduroy men's shirt

This is a really fun and easy DIY that even a beginner sewist could definitely tackle! And it’s a fun way to refashion a men’s shirt, either from your man’s closet (I won’t tell!) or from the thrift store.

So let’s get into the tutorial!

*This list contains affiliate links to the products I used in this DIY. So if you purchase something through one of my links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This really helps to support my site so I can continue to create sewing and DIY tutorials for you like this one!

What you need:

Steps:

  1. Remove sleeves and collar and cut apart the shirt at the shoulder seams
  2. Draw out your front and back neckline design
  3. Cut along your design lines
  4. Make the shoulder straps
  5. Take in the side seams to fit you better
  6. Finish the upper edges of the overalls with a rolled hem
  7. Sew buttons on the front corners of the overalls
  8. Make buttonholes on the finished end of the straps
  9. Sew the other ends of the straps to the overalls back

Instructions:

Step 1

To get started on this DIY, I first removed the collar and the sleeves from the shirt. I also cut apart the shoulder seams to detach the front from the back at the shoulder.

remove sleeves and collar and detach at shoulder seams

Step 2

Next, I put the shirt onto my dress form and pinned it in place so I can decide what shape I want my overalls to have at the top. If you don’t have a dress form you can try it on and have someone help you draw the shape you want. Or you could just freehand it, the overall shape is pretty basic and would definitely work fine just freehanded.

pin shirt to dress form

I then drew the shape I wanted the back of the overalls to have. I only drew on one side because when I actually cut it I’ll fold it in half and cut it so that both sides are identical.

draw the shape you want in the overall back

Next, I drew the shape I wanted for the front. This was super simple because it was basically just a line straight across the top and a curve connecting to the armhole. Once again, I only did this on one side of the shirt.

draw the front shape of the overalls

Then I took the shirt off the dress form and cut the yoke off the back of the shirt (the double fabric layer at the very top of the back of the shirt).

men's corduroy shirt with yoke men's corduroy shirt without yoke

Next, I ironed out the pleat in the back of the shirt so that it would lay flat.

iron out pleat in back of the shirt

Then I made my lines in the back a little smoother with my french curve ruler.

smooth out lines in back with french curve ruler

And I did the same in the front.

smooth lines in front with french curve ruler

Step 3

Next, I folded the shirt with side seams, center front, and center back matched up. You can see what I mean in the photo below. I made sure that my chalk markings were on the side that was facing up so I could see them.

fold shirt with side seams, center front, and center back matching

And I just cut along the lines I had drawn on the shirt. Like this:

cut along the lines drawn on the shirt

After cutting it looked like this:

men's shirt cut for DIY overall dress

Step 4

Now it’s time to make the shoulder straps! To make the straps, I grabbed the sleeves I had previously cut off. On one of the sleeves, I drew out a rectangle approximately 3 inches by 12 inches.

draw a rectangle on one of the sleeves

I cut out this rectangle, going through both layers of fabric. So I ended up with two identical rectangles.

two rectangles cut from shirt sleeves

I then put one of the rectangles on the other sleeve and used it as a guide to cut two rectangles out of the other sleeve.

use one rectangle as a guide to cut the other sleeve

I ended up with four identical rectangles:

four identical rectangles for shoulder straps

Next, I made two longer straps out of the four rectangles. To do this, I first separated the four rectangles into two pairs. I sewed each pair together at one of the short sides with right sides together.

sew each set of rectangles together

After ironing my seams open, I ended up with this:

Next, I folded each strap in half lengthwise with right sides together and sewed down the long edge and ONE of the short edges of each strap.

stitch straps together along long edge and one short edge

After sewing and trimming the seam allowances a bit, this is what they looked like:

straps sewed together

Then I turned the straps right sides out.

beginning to turn the shoulder strap right sides out straps turned right sides out

Next, I ironed the straps flat to make them nice and pretty.

shoulder straps ironed flat

Step 5

I set the straps aside for later and tried on the shirt. It was a bit loose for my liking so I pinned up the side seams while wearing it, then took it off and cut near my pins. Then I sewed up the new side seams.

take in the side seams of the shirt

I then finished the raw edges of the side seams with my serger, pressed it towards the back, and stitched it in place with some topstitching. This step is totally optional though, I just liked how it looked. Here’s what it looked like from the inside and the outside:

side seams pressed to the back and topstitched

Step 6

Next, I hemmed all the edges along the top of the overalls with a small rolled hem.

hem neck and armhole edges with rolled hem small rolled hem up close

Step 7

Next, I took two of the buttons off of the sleeve cuffs that had previously been cut off. I attached one to each corner of the front. To decide where I wanted the buttons I put the end of a strap on the front corner and marked where I wanted the button. I would recommend making your buttonholes on the straps FIRST, but I accidentally sewed the buttons on first, so I’ll just show you what I did.

determine where to place your buttons

Step 8

Next, I made a buttonhole in each strap near the finished (no raw edges) end. I had to cut another button off the sleeves to do this because the buttonhole foot for my sewing machine needs a button to determine what size of buttonhole to make.

sew buttonholes in the end of each strap

Then I cut open the buttonholes. Here’s a little trick for cutting buttonholes: place a pin at the end of the buttonhole perpendicular to the buttonhole and cut it open with a seam ripper. The pin will stop the seam ripper from going through the end of the buttonhole.

place a pin at the end of the buttonhole two buttonholes cut open

Then I attached the straps to the overalls front with the buttons.

attach straps to front with buttons

Step 9

Now we’re almost done! I tried on the dress and looked in the mirror. I marked the approximate length I wanted at the back of one of the straps. Then I took off the dress, lined up the two straps and made a matching mark on the other strap.

mark your strap length

Now you just have to sew the straps down to the back of the dress. I first attempted to do this with the straps coming in straight from the top (as you see in the photos below). But this angle resulted in the straps not laying nice and flat in the back.

straps sewn in facing straight down straps sewn in facing straight down from inside

I knew that having straps wonky in the back would definitely keep me from wearing the dress on the day-to-day, so I decided to fix it. So I seam ripped the straps off the back and resewed them down at a steeper angle (as shown below). I made sure to sew from the outside of the dress to make sure my stitching was in the existing stitching line. To finish the edges I serged them and then added an additional line of stitching to the inside of the first stitching in order to keep the seam allowances down.

straps from inside sewn in at a steeper angle straps sewn in at a steeper angle

And that’s it, we’re done! This may seem complicated but I know you can do it! It’s easier than it sounds if you just take it one step at a time.

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