Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A T-Shirt Makeover X 2!!!

I love our church!!!  T-Shirts and jeans are the outfits of choice most of the time, and since that's the case they give out or sell T-Shirts for all kinds of occasions.  And they're very inexpensive.  Most of the time we have to pay $5 per T-Shirt and that's any size, so we have a LOT of church T-Shirts.  Inevitably when wearing a T-Shirt to church you end up being twins, triplets, quads...you get the point.  And they're unisex and I like to feminize mine.  So that's what I did...on T-Shirt #1

T-Shirt #1
 Another thing I love is the music we play.  It is very contemporary and loud...apologetically!!!  One of my favorite songs is "Manifesto" by The City Harmonic.  We had a chance to see them at a 4th of July celebration in our city and they had a T-Shirt that had the lyrics to that song...score!!!  Problem was...their largest size was much to small for me, but I wanted the shirt sooo bad!  So I bought it with grand plans to expand the shirt to fit me...T-Shirt #2!

T-Shirt #2
So back to T-Shirt #1...I decided I wanted to frilly up the sleeves.  So I chopped off the edges and ruffled them up by zigzag stitching the edges.



Then I wanted to open up the neckline and add something girlish to it.  It's not the easiest thing to open up a neckline without cutting too much or letting it stretch too much.  To keep it from stretching I added a binding I made of left over t-shirt material from another project.







I then top stitched it down to keep it from rolling to the front of the shirt.  That's the way it stayed for a couple of weeks while I decided what Pinterest-y way I wanted to dress up the front. 

I decided to use some black tulle and cut out a bunch of circles.  I wanted 3 circles for every little flower or puff on the front of the shirt.  I wasn't sure how many I needed, so I cut a lot.  I folded the tulle over accordion-style a bit larger than the circle I was going to use as a template.  Then I cut a bunch at one time.




Then I took 3 at a time and folded them up in thirds...kinda...I didn't really want them each perfect.  I wanted them different and not cookie cutter shape looking.  Then I hand stitched the ends of the piece and then stitched it to the edge of the neckline. 




I ended up with 13 poofs on one side and 13 on the other side.  I didn't do the whole neckline because I didn't want it to be scratchy on my neck and honestly it didn't need to go all the way around anyway.



Now my T-Shirt will be a one-of-a-kind and very much ME!

Then there's T-Shirt #2.

This is honestly one of the softest, most comfortable t-shirts I've ever owned and so to enlarge it I had to be careful what kind of fabric I put with it.  I've been working with a screen printing company closely for our PTSA so I decided to see if I could order another shirt the exact same brand as this t-shirt.  Thankfully he was able to get one, and in the same size as the one I bought...less altering!!!

To start with I measured the t-shirt I wanted to alter with a t-shirt that I knew fit me the way I liked to determine how much I really needed to add.  Then I took the blank t-shirt, marked and cut the sides and arm holes at the seams using the measurements from the other t-shirt.







Next I had to remove the seam from the original t-shirt.  I started by ripping it out, but soon decided that would take me WAYYYY too long!!!  So I just cut it out...very carefully!!!  I'm enlarging this thing, I don't need to cut out extra!  That would be very foolish.  So I cut the seam slowly right along the stitch line.



Once it was opened up I matched the extension right sides together with the original t-shirt.  It wasn't just as easy as lay it down and it matches up...when is it ever!  I had to ease things in especially in the chest and underarm area.  AND...the edge of the sleeves didn't match up.  Ok, did I tell you I've never enlarged a t-shirt before?  This is learning as you go at it's finest.  I'll explain how I fixed that in a minute.  Once I matched up the edge...one at a time mind you...I stitched them carefully using about a 1/2 inch seam. 


I repeated that with all 4 seams then used a zigzag stitch to "serge" together the seam allowance since I don't own a serger!!!  Then I cut off the excess sleeve and the cuff of the original sleeve.  I used the same zigzag method to finish off the sleeves that I did with the black t-shirt.

The last thing I wanted to change was the neckline (again...I am not a fan of the tight t-shirt necklines that come standard in unisex t's).  I cut off the collar right along the stitching just to get that cuff piece off.  I stitched it with a straight stitch about a 1/3 inch in to keep it from stretching too much.  Then I added a white piece of tulle and a piece of blue t-shirt fabric about an inch wide each and left the edges raw.  I stitched them together straight down the middle and then attached them to the raw neckline of the t-shirt about 1/2 inch in from the edge. 




Now I can wear my T-Shirt I love without it being too small!!!  It worked out great, not perfect, but good enough for me!


I can't wait to find some other ideas for T-Shirts since I know I will end up with another 2 or 3 church shirts by the end of the year.  Another reason I love Pinterest and blogging!!!  It's such a great way to get ideas and turn my Pieces into Treasures!!!
 

UPDATE:

I'm wearing the T-Shirt #2 today and had to change the collar.  I'd added the tulle and it was horribly itchy...completely driving me crazy (NO COMMENTS NEEDED ON THAT STATEMENT!).  So I ripped off the previous collar gently and grabbed my extra shirt leftovers to make something new...and SOFT!  I cut 4 strips out of the body of the extra about 2" wide, stitched them together to make one long strip then basted them down the middle.  Then I gathered them all up tight.
 
 
To prep the shirt I zigzagged around the edge of the t-shirt at the collar before adding the ruffle.
 
 
I then stretched the gathered strips out to fit around the t-shirt collar, spread the gathers out evenly and pinned it down.  Then I zigzagged stitched through the center of the strip attaching it to the shirt.  Using the zigzag vs. a straight stitch I kept the stretchability of the neck of the shirt.  I was lacking that with the previous alteration and since I had to change it anyway...can't have an itchy neck...I went with zigzag over the straight stitch.  Trust me, it's much more comfortable!!!
 

 
 




Jennifer

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5 comments:

  1. Jana@Transformations From the HeartAugust 24, 2012 at 8:37 AM

    Jennifer,
    I like what you did with the T-Shirts adding some frilliness to them and making them OOAK. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a sweet comment on my frosted vase.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jill @ Create.Craft.Love.August 24, 2012 at 12:39 PM

    I love your T-shirt recycle! Great job! Thanks for sharing at the Pomp Party! Pinning to our Pomp Party board!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChristineAugust 24, 2012 at 12:42 PM

    So cool Jennifer!! Way to go! Love the ruffles.

    Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer... From Dream To Reality!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co.August 27, 2012 at 7:45 PM

    Wow, you really know how to transform a shirt!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSeptember 25, 2012 at 12:04 AM

    Wow nice. Thanks for sharing this.Now I got different ideas to do some changes with my blank t shirts

    ReplyDelete

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