Tag Archives: scarf

Bourbon Street T-shirt

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Before

I love this t-shirt even though it has always been too small and too short for me. I picked it up at a garage sale assuming since I was eating healthier I would soon fit into it. Not so. Not even close. But I had an idea that would make this t-shirt not only wearable but cuter than the original. I started by going through my scarf collection, looking for one that would work with this t-shirt. My goal wasn’t so much to match it as to find a scarf that I would wear with this shirt. If you don’t have a scarf that works for your project you could use another t-shirt, light-weight knit, light-weight cotton or even a piece of lace.

First step – cut away the back of the t-shirt in a straight line from the bottom of the sleeve opening and down each side seam. I cut just inside the seam on the back and then cut away the serged seam from the front so that I would have a piece I could use as trim if I needed it. Be VERY careful not to cut through the front of the t-shirt. I mention this because I’ve done it before. I’ve always been able to salvage my mistakes by reworking the original design but since this shirt was already a bit small it would be more difficult to correct an error like that and besides I didn’t want the extra work. I wanted to keep this refashion relatively simple.

 

template for new back of top

 

the third triangle is a fifth wheel in this refashion

Second Step – cut the back piece that’s been liberated from the shirt into 3 triangles. Use the two triangles that are the same size and sew them to the side seams of the front of your shirt. These triangles along with the new back will turn a fitted top into a trapeze style top. Add the middle triangle to your scrap pile. You may find a use for it in another refashion.

Third Step – sew the scarf to the back of the shirt on all three sides. You may need to trim, gather or otherwise manipulate your scarf to make it fit or to get the fit that you want. I generally choose to gather rather than trim because I’m afraid that once I cut something away I’ll find I regret it and it’s a lot harder to fix a mistake like that than to simply remove the stitches from a gather. Plus I like the detailing that gathering gives. You can see how I gathered the lower sides of the scarf in the larger picture of the back of the finished shirt.

Third Step Note – my scarf wasn’t wide enough to fit from the top seam to the bottom hem so I cut a portion from the length of the scarf and stitched it to the scarf to create a piece large enough for what I wanted to do with it. You can see this seam in the close up of the back of the shirt.

Fourth Step – After trying the shirt on I felt like the sleeves needed to step it up a bit to fit in so I used pieces from the scarf to trim them.

Then it’s off to the stables where I found a stable-hand to take some pics of my new t-shirt.

Too Much Bling bebe!

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I acquired this super-soft brown top at a clothing swap. Trouble was that it was terribly outdated with white satin collar and faux-cuffs and that blingy-sparkly “bebe” logo in the chestal region. Not happening in my closet!

Check out the rhinestone logo!

 

 

I fooled around with it, desperately trying to make it work into a wearable top, because I loved the fabric – it was soooo soft and such a rich brown color. Finally I decided that trying to refashion it as a top was not going to work for me, mostly because I couldn’t get around the rhinestone “bebe” logo. So snip, snip and my refashion was done!

I turned it into an infinity scarf by cutting straight across under the arms to create a tube. I popped it over my head to take a look at my new infinity scarf and ehhhh. It was smaller than I wanted and I wanted to make this a zerio-waste refashion. So I cut the tube and each sleeve apart at one seam and stitched the sleeves to the body of the top to make a longer scarf. Then I stitched the whole thing back into a tube for a lovely long infinity scarf that can be worn long or looped around for a very thick and plush shorter scarf.

looped around twice

long loop with a button brooch

to be continued ...

And I’m saving the satin collar and cuffs as well as the rhinestone buttons for an upcoming refashion. Bling can work when done right.

Tanktop Topper

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I have this collection of scarves which I can’t get rid of because they’re so beautiful, however not only do I not wear most of them, many of them I’ve NEVER worn. Egads! What was I thinking? I thought I’d start wearing scarves tied into chic headbands and around a ponytail, forgetting that I rarely actually wear a ponytail and that scarf headbands slip off my head before I can even leave the house. Yet still I kept buying these beautiful scarves and now I’m determined that I’m going to find ways to use them in my wardrobe. I started with an easy one, a medium sized square scarf.

I can't let all the beautiful detail in this scarf waste away in a closet.

I measured across my shoulders to get an idea how long a slit to cut into the scarf. Then I cut a slit. Note, I said SLIT. I didn’t arc the cut downwards as this is such a sheer scarf I wanted it to cover as much of my chestal region as possible. I liked how I thought that would look.

After putting my head through the slit and determining that I had cut it as much as I wanted I stitched two short rows of zig-zag stitches on either side of the scarf to create bat wing sleeves.

To finish the edge of neck opening I used a drawstring left over from a skirt I had refashioned. It was a very light weight silk so it would go well with this scarf. I didn’t use the entire drawstring. I just zig-zag stitched the drawstring to the edge of the neck opening all the way around and cut away the excess drawstring, saving it for another refashion.

Worn over halter top as a coverup.

This is perfect worn over either a wife-beater tank or a silk cami. I’ve even worn it over a halter dress when a backless dress wasn’t quite appropriate for where I was going. Because this scarf is so sheer I didn’t think that it would provide any warmth, but it does help a bit when a day turns chilly. I’ve also worn it as a scarf by inserting my head through the opening but not putting my arms through the sleeve openings. This style of scarf is much more modern that any way that I could have worn it as a simple square scarf.