One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

I like to give themed presents. For instance, at baby showers it’s fun to give a whole tub of bath supplies and some books about bath time too. Everything goes together and the presentation is so cute. This time it wasn’t a baby shower, but a 3 year old birthday party. (It’s the same 3 year old that is having a pirate party.) It all started with a puzzle. A giant Dr. Seuss floor puzzle. At that moment I knew I had to have a Dr. Seuss theme. In the present there were also multiple books, a cat in the hat bag, a water bottle, and a dress/tunic (thats what this post is really about). I’ve been gathering items for a while now, so when a super cute “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” shirt came into the store I knew I had to do something with it. It couldn’t go as is because most 3 year olds don’t wear juniors size XL.

Here is the shirt. It’s actually very cute. The fish are metallic and in general, it’s just fun!

I laid the shirt out flat and started by measuring out how wide the top of the dress needed to be.

I then drew a rough outline of where I needed to cut, and cut out the shirt. I had to make some tiny adjustments as I went, but when I work with t-shirts I feel like they don’t have to be exactly perfect and it usually works out just fine.

I sewed down the sides and sewed the shoulders together on the inside. I used a small zig-zag stitch to make sure the seam would stretch a little bit. I used the same zig-zag stitch for this entire project.

I turned under the neck and the arms just once and pinned them down. I stitched them into place.

The next thing I did was make 2 bows. I used the scraps from the sleeves of the shirt. I cut 2 rectangles and folded both of the long ends together to make a little pocket like the photo above. I sewed down both sides. I then flipped this little pocket and turned it over. I used other scrap material to gather the middle together.

Here are my 2 finished bows. I just tied the material around the middle and sewed it into place and I was sewing the bows onto the dress. I gathered both shoulders of the dress and sewed a bow onto each shoulder.

Here it is. It’s kind of a dress, kind of a tunic, and it kind of looks like it would be a great pool cover up. It’s pretty comfy so it might even be a night gown. Either way, I liked it.