Tutorial - turn a t-shirt into a bubble dress

I have this long t-shirt that I bought for my daughter Nuha, but she don't really like wearing it. She is now 2+ and is already kind of choosy about her clothes. But she loves dresses, so I guess it's time to change it into a dress and see whether she'll wear it.

Because the t-shirt is kind of long, I cut the t-shirt at waist length and use the extras as the inner part of the bubble skirt. If you are using a normal t-shirt, then you can always substitute this with an inner fabric.

I then measured the width of the t-shirt, and it is about 10 inches (per side), 20 inches (all around). I times this measurement by 2.5, as such, the width of the fabric needed will be 50 inches wide.

As for the height, I measured the heights that I wanted for the dress (from waist down) and added in a few extra inches to bubble in the skirt. In my case, the height that i wanted is 9.5 inches, and I added in another 3.5 inches to bubble in (all in all 13 inches long).

I then cut my fabric - 50 x 13 inches and iron. Fold the fabric into two (at its long side, right side together) and sew the shorter side together (i.e. the length of the skirt). If you have a serger, serge the top part of the fabric. I don't have a serger, as such, I double fold the edge of the upper part of fabric to avoid the fabric from fraying. Don't bother hemming the lower part of the fabric as it will be sewed onto the inner fabric and turned right side out.

Now, gather the bottom part of the fabric to the inner fabric, right sides together and sew. Turn the fabric right side out. Then, gather the upper part of the fabric to the inner fabric, wrong sides together and sew, this will be the upper part of the dress skirt.

This is how the bubble skirt should look like on the inside

The key to making the skirt 'bubble' is that the width of the inner fabric should be lesser that the 
width of the outer fabric.

To finish, attached the upper part of the dress skirt to the t-shirt, right sides together and sew. You can top-stitch for a cleaner look. 

I'm glad that Nuha loves her new bubble dress.