reconstructed tshirts

Wheeee! This is uber trendy right now. And fun. I love taking crap I haven't worn in 2 years and turning it into crap I will wear again for another three months. Hence all the skirts out of pants I hate.

My latest victim was an old, ill-fitting tshirt. I sort of started with the idea to make the tshirt a tank top, and then went crazy as I thought of cool idea after cool idea.

I first took a seam ripper and detatched the sleeves and collar. I sewed a new hem around the arms and collar, mostly to make the shoulders into a real tank top instead of the cap sleeve look, but you can hem it or leave it (ha ha). The great thing about cut up tshirt is that it will not fray! I then cut slits up the sides because the shirt was a teensy bit tight around my somewhat womanly hips. Then here's where i started to get a little nuts. I decided to put a channel of fabric (taken from the sleeves--good thing I cut those off) on the inside of the shirt, right underneath where my boobs would go.

(here is a good chance for me to interject with a little comment about why making your own clothes is so great. if i bought this shirt in the store, the "right underneath the boobs" part would actually come about mid nip on me, as i apparently have saggy breasts in comparison with the fashion ideal. but for MY shirt, i actually put the damn thing on and drew a pencil line underneath said boobs, and now the shirt is custom made for ME and my saggy friends. yay!)

Okay. I ran a length of grosgrain ribbon through the channel, cut a slit in the back of the shirt, and pulled the ribbon ends through so I can cinch up the shirt a little bit and tie a bow in the back. the ribbon is long enough so it hangs down my back but short enough so i don't sit on it. I then painted the end of the ribbon with nail polish so they don't fray. (NOTE: I take the ribbon out before washing just in case of runnage.) Now when I tie up the ribbon the shirt kind of does this a-line slight flare thing and it looks cool.

Oh but I'm not done with this shirt. Okay almost. I then ran a quick basting stitch along the shoulder seams and for about an inch and a half from the collar down the center of the shirt and pulled and secured the threads so I have a cool scrunchy effect.

Wow that sounds so easy! Well okay there was a hard part. When I cut off the sleeves i had a lot of baggy-ness in the arm holes. To avoid excess bra visibility I put some half-assed crapola darts in the sides, kind of under the arms. They look like crap. It was I think the 2nd time I ever made darts, and the first time I ever did it without professional help. So you can imagine. If you have some excess fabric you need to get rid of to make your shirt fit better, darts are the way to go. but don't ask me to explain the damn things.