Friday, May 15, 2009

What to do with a nasty old shirt

Before:

T-shirt before example

After:

T-shirt after

Collateral damage:

Scraps

I made up the pattern myself. My husband said, "Yeah, but you could cheat by using the armholes that were already there." Well, no, I told him. Since the shirt was an extra large, and I'm not, I cut it open, cut out two big rectangles, and pretty much just used it like regular fabric.

The shirt is pretty much just two rectangles. I wanted a boat neck, and tried to sew up the easiest way to make that work. I cut two rectangles, sewed the sides together up to where I thought the armholes should go, and tried it on. I adjusted the armhole measurements, and shaped them from there. I sewed very narrow shoulders, and then hemmed the straight neckline and the armholes (When I make this again, I will sew and hem the neckline first. Since it is just a straight hem, it will be easier to hem if the sides are still open).

Because I don't wear gray, and the boatneck prototype turned out so well that I actually want to wear it, I wanted to add a little color to it. I had an old pink tee that had a hole in an unfortunate place, so I cut it up to make a bright border. I cut two long strips from the pink tee, sewed them together, and added them to the bottom of the gray top to add a border with a side tie.

Here's another one. I don't have a before of this one, but it was just a simple women's tee.

Another Finished product

(photo courtesy of our resident little princess)

I chopped off the arms, cut out the ribbed neckline, and shortened the armholes. Then I hemmed everything up, and added little bows at the shoulders with the scraps for a little decorative touch.

It's a good thing my husband doesn't like colorful t-shirts, or I would probably cut them all up.

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