Ribbon T-Shirt Dress~ DIY

It’s been awhile since I did a proper fashion DIY! 

I was so excited to take on this project because it ended up being so easy, and no sewing required!

What started this obsession with ribbon t-shirt dresses were all the J-fashion apparel I’ve been seeing with similar styles over the past 2 years. Like most niche  things, I didn't see any designs that I necessarily wanted. Since the first iteration of this dress I saw was a Disney, The Little Mermaid, featured item, I had cemented that I needed my own Disney related ribbon dress too!

Like most of my outfit ideas, I have to sketch it out properly. Following my J-fashion inspirations, I wanted ribbons to lace down the sides. I also wanted to add some extra flair, and decided to see how a ribbon lacing over the shoulder would fair.

I’ve had a Powerline, from A Goofy Movie, shirt for a few months now that I never could figure out how to wear. So, I set that up to be my experimental shirt for this blog.

Items needed:

T-shirt (preferably on the longer side)

Ribbons (for my design, I had a lot of places to use ribbon and added length, so I used a bit over 21 ft)

28 extra large eyelets

Extra large eyelet tool~ I bought 10 eyelets + tool in a pack

Hammer

Scissors 

Marker or fabric chalk

Concrete work surface !

Optional:

8 extra large eyelets (for shoulder detail)

Wrench, to hold the eyelet tool

So, to make my t-shirt dress, I came up with a game plan! 

2 rows of 7 eyelets on each side~

First one starting 1.5 in. from the bottom, and each eyelet is spaced 2 inches apart. 

The two rows are spaced 3 in. In between. 

I marked out all my measurements, and placed a dot in marker where I wanted to place my eyelets.

For the shoulder detail, I picked a random placement on the shoulder, diagonally.

I spaced a line of 4 dots 1.5 in apart.

Then, 2 in. over, I repeated the same process.

After creating my dots, I made a small incision with my scissors on each dot.

The hole should be just big enough to squeeze the raised tube of the eyelet into! Any bigger and the eyelet can fall off.

This is an eyelet~
It has two parts, the tube disk and the toothy side.

The eyelet tool consists of two parts, the base and the mallet.
The eyelet should fit perfectly into the eyelet tool for a snug application.

To install the eyelet, make sure the fabric is inverted!

On a clear concrete surface, place the tool base.

Place down the tube disk, tube up.

Stretch the hole in the shirt over the tube. (The bottom of the tube disk is the pretty side, so you want to make sure its on the visible side of the shirt).

Place the toothy side over the tube, sandwiching the fabric.
Put the mallet over the eyelet, fitting it snugly into the tube.

The eyelet +fabric sandwich should look like this.

Installation seems to only work on a clear concrete surface, trust me on this.

Double check that the eyelet and tool base isn’t resting on any part of the other side of the shirt (the shirt will get destroyed if you hammer on it, it happened to me!)

Then, take your hammer, and hammer hard a few times on the mallet!

A wrench, or any gripping type tool, is great to hold onto the mallet for those who are scared of hammers +fingers or extremely clumsy.
Once I figured out that I would hurt myself less and hammered harder holding the mallet with another tool, installing the eyelets went so quickly!

After all the eyelets are installed, threading them with ribbon is the easiest task!

Voila! A cute ribbon t-shirt dress! 

My finished coordinate looked exactly like I sketched out. I was quite happy with my handy work. I love that it’s a perfect mix of casual and cute! Also, that I can now turn any boring screen tee into a cute statement piece! 

Now, I can do the same thing to my mermaid lagoon shirt that I bought to perfectly compliment my style! The options are now limitless on how I can thread ribbons onto my clothing!

<3CarisseIris