Once a year, Riggs Partners (the advertising agency I do cool digital things for) has a CreateAthon.
You probably don’t know what that is. It’s okay. I didn’t either until I started working for them. A CreateAthon is a 24-hour no-sleep pro-bono marketing blitz wherein we provide our services (and the services of a few other talented folks around town) to local nonprofits.
When it came time to order shirts for our recent CreateAthon, I asked for a 3x.
“You’re going to do something cool with this, aren’t you?” asked my coworker.
Well…of course I was.

I’m one of those women who much prefer dresses to pants. I think they’re way comfier, and I feel bad that most men will never know how great they truly are (dresses, not the men).
The reason I went with a too-big-for-me shirt was to ensure I (hopefully) had enough length for a dress without having to piece bits together. I crossed my fingers and got to work.
First, I took the shirt and folded it in half.

Then, I took a jersey knit dress I liked the fit of and folded it in half on top of this shirt.

I cut carefully along the outline of the blue dress, which left me with this:

I pinned each side down…

…then stitched each side.

I tried my new dress on, and still had to do a bit of finicky altering around the shoulders of the dress, but after a few minor alterations, my frock was ready for 24 hours of digital marketing action!

My team was impressed with my handiwork. 🙂

There was much work to be done, as I was assigned two different nonprofits to figure out digital strategies for (as well as writing a bit of web copy).

Luckily, I still found time to make a T-shirt for our mascot, T-Riggs!


This was a challenging challenge. I was thankful for my comfy & cozy dress, but working for 24 hours straight takes its toll.

By 10:00 the next day, our work was done, and I was ready for a four-hour nap. 🙂
All in a night’s work!
(If you’d like to see a few more CreateAthon pics, here ya go!)
Cheers!

love it:)
LOVE! I’ll have to remember to find a 3X shirt! Super cute!
Hi Jillian! Love the new design of your website!
I hope that you had a great New Years. I enjoy all of your refashions. Hope to see a post soon.
Jill, are you all right? The world needs you.
Happy New Year, Jillian! Can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to, and what you have in store for your fans in 2017.
Just wondering what you are wearing for Christmas? Will you be grabbing something drab and refashioning it into something fabulous? Would love to see what you come up with.
How adorable!!! Great cause, too.
I love that this blog is not your top priority, that might sound weird; but the fact is, your life is way too interesting to be stuck here. It’s fabulous to see little snippets of your creative life and the occasional refashion that goes along with it!!! I pop by every couple of months, like you are old friend, and you are totally part of my life! I get my new sewing space soon, a cabin in the back garden!! The kids are taking over the house, so I’m getting my own little creative sanctuary *bliss* :oD
What if you you used the extra side parts you cut off to make a ruffle or a split panel on the bottom for an extra bit of length?
Love it! Only on me I’d probably add a little length. Really a cute idea for a casual dress!
where does all the length go? (love the Chinese in your fireplace!)
Y!
that print is AH-MAZING!!! And hope you were having a great time at createAthon, I’m writing this from my conference in Tenerife ( sigh, hard life) where sadly the plastic name-tag is the only thiing that unites us poor conference-goers. I think I’ll have to push them into organizing shirts for the next one;)
Adorable. You and the dress, both. The matching bangle is a nice touch.
One of my favorite transformations! 😀
Love the dress you made. Way better than a boring shirt.
Awesome! The dress & the idea if a Create-a-thon!!!
You are a genius also very pretty! Thank you for explaining how you get the fit!
I love your company’s give-back spirit. So inspirational! I have modified large tshirts as well but because I am tallish, I do a L/XL and usually add a band of eyelet or another cute stretchy knit at the bottom to make it at least an acceptable length for leggings or tights. Love how innovative you always are ❤️❤️
Once again, u blow me away with your talent, creativity….
Cute. Congrats on the dress and your productive night’s work.
As a fellow lover of wearing skirts, I love that you are the only one wearing a skirt! And you look adorable!
That’s really cute! You are so talented and creative!
You did a GREAT JOB….as usual…..Thanks for sharing 🙂
What a treat to see your post today! Xoxo
Amazing clever and CUTE!
wonderful like always
I love it! I would also wear it for the Thanksgiving holiday as a tunic over orange leggings and throw a big brown belt around it! As for your 24 hour stint; I work for a non profit and also work with several other non profits in our community and this is what I always tell people…..Work is something you do to feed your bank account; community service is something you do to feed your soul!
I agree! It’s too c-c-cold-d-d for that shorty-short dress! Leggings and boots with a belt would rock it without turning blue.
That’s adorable!
I always ask for extra larger sized shirts at my work too. Because most times the shirts they get are designed for men and I just want to room to be able to alter the sides and shoulders to better fit my womanly figure. Holy cow, though, I wouldn’t’ve thought of a dress! Awesome idea!!
Very cute dress! For a very good cause! Way to sew, girl!
Looks great! I second the motion and am always happy to see what you are up to!
You are too sweet and kind……God Bless You
I didn’t have time to read this, just needed to click and comment. GIRL, your face is so damn good in those *before* pics. Rock on with your bad self!!
Always enjoy seeing your latest project !
i just love it. you are a kind of a genius. thanks.
This is my first visit to your blog and I must admit I am totally in love with your beautiful spirit and wonderful talent. Know, lovely girl, that you are inspiring even to us way over here in the Caribbean, I saw that you were wondering how come we choose to visit your blog as opposed to the hipper and savvier bloggers … I think I understood correctly … well, its because we can “feel” you through your blog and you are our friend, our sister, the girl who lives next door and you are a darling!!! Thanks for the visit, I shall be back!!