On our last trip to Goodwill, Mo and I found this really pretty plaid dress. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect for a friend of mine. It was her favorite colors and she loves plaid. My only worry was that it was a dress and that’s not something she wears often. It was only a few dollars and I did love the material so I figured if she couldn’t use it or didn’t want it, at the very least, it would make nice quilting material. Turned out that she loved the material, color, and everything about it, except that it was a dress. No problem, I said – I’ll shorten it.

Once we decided on the new length, I got to work on cutting it down. The first thing I did was to remove the pockets. The easiest way to do this was to stitch the pocket opening closed, then trim off the excess material on the inside.

I then cut the bottom portion off of the dress about 1 inch longer than where I wanted the bottom to land. This was enough to fold the hem under twice to leave a nice bottom hem on the shirt.

And that’s all there was  to it.

This cotton flannel fabric is really nice to work with and the lines from the plaid make it easy to cut a straight line when shortening. I love to refashion garments, making something new from something old to extend the life of the material. And, this material is pre-broken in – nice and cozy, weathered a bit, and it won’t shrink in the dryer. 🙂