New Paganoonoo Upcycle Sewing Release! The Laura Dress / Tunic Tutorial

Welcome to Paganoonoo

If you’re new to Paganoonoo, welcome! Paganoonoo specializes in creating tutorials for home sewists that teach the refashion/upcycle process. Many of our designs start with men’s dress shirts—why? They offer good-quality fabric and construction and are easily available secondhand. 

If you'd like to learn how to refashion men's dress shirts, keep reading!

“The greenest clothing is that which has already been made. It gets even greener when refashioned and worn.”
                                                        — Michelle Paganini

Meet Our Newest Design:
The Laura Dress or Tunic

The Laura Dress began with a stack of men’s dress shirts and a vision of a comfortable, flattering silhouette for everyday life. There’s a special magic in turning something ordinary into something you love to wear!

Design Description

The Laura Dress — or tunic — is a babydoll style with a raised empire waist. Made from secondhand dress shirts, it can be loosely fit and flare, or very loose-fitting.

Pattern Tester Jane Snider's Tunic version

The torso section is made from an intact dress shirt, while the skirt portion is made from sleeves. Get a perfect fit by selecting a torso dress shirt that is already a perfect fit in the bust/back/arms.

It can be lengthened with a tiered skirt or shortened with a raw-edged scalloped hem fashioned from upside-down sleeves, using their raw shoulder seams as the hem.

The Laura Dress pairs perfectly with a slip dress or bloomers, making it a great choice for layering or Lagenlook style.

Tiered version of the Laura Dress

Construction: How It's Made

You get a perfect fit by selecting a shirt for your torso that already fits your bust, shoulders and arms the way you like.  Nothing is altered above the armhole, so the fit you start with is the fit you end up with.  The skirt section is loose fitting.

Sleeves already set in, the cuffs, plackets, collar, and buttonholes are already finished, and the buttons are sewn on! You get to skip these construction details.

Scalloped hem with bloomers

The bottom half is made from sewn together inverted dress shirt sleeves, where the cuffs form the waistband of the skirt. That single twist makes the Laura unique and playful. Both styles keep the essence of the original shirt while becoming something entirely new.

Why This Dress / Tunic Matters

Flattering and comfortable clothing that also feels stylish, is eco friendly and budget friendly can be a challenge to find—especially for curvy women and those of us in the peri- to post-menopause age group.

Like me: a post-menopausal, pear-shaped, curvy lady (size 14/16). I designed this dress for myself and received so many compliments every time I wore it that I knew it should be the next Paganoonoo design release.

The babydoll cut offers breathing room without sacrificing style. And because it’s upcycled, every dress tells its own story.

Sew green, feel comfortable, and look great!

Styled with layers: petticoat & scarf

Upcycle Sewing Tutorial vs. Sewing Pattern

Unlike traditional sewing patterns, the Paganoonoo method for the Laura Dress requires no pattern pieces. 

Instead, the sewist starts with existing garments (not regular flat-fold cloth) and is guided through the deconstruction and reconstruction process. Think of it as 3D sewing.

The tutorial provides step-by-step instructions and illustrations showing how to transform 5–7 men’s dress shirts into a babydoll dress.

Skill Level

Recommended for intermediate sewists who are ready for a unique project.

Usually make a muslin? Here’s the upcycling method: start with old shirts you don’t love for your first try—it’s a great way to manage the learning curve.

Get Started Now:
Make Your Own Laura!

👉 Shop the Laura Tutorial

Get 15% off with code: LauraBlog

Happy Upcycling!

Michelle Paganini
Founder & Designer, Paganoonoo

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