Tag Archives: refashioned t-shirt

Eeyore Grows Up

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I fell in love with this boxy, way too big for me v-neck t-shirt because of it’s lovely shades of lavender and Eeyore’s sad eyes staring out at the world.

Once again I forgot to take a before pic, but this one is the same shape.

 

This was a simple fix to take this shirt from frumpy adult who looked as if she was hanging onto her childhood way too long and make it over into a t-shirt that is both super cute and fantastically comfy. I know, I know Stacey and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear” would roll their eyes at describing any garment as comfortable but I really think this works both ends of the spectrum, fashionable AND comfortable.

First thing was to remove the collar. I cut it just below the stitching all the way around. Then I cut off the sleeve hems and bottom hem just above the stitching.

At this point I could have just tied it in a knot at my waist and called it a day, but I wanted to take this one a bit further. I found a Spandex lavender workout shirt that I will never EVER wear again (stop snickering!) and cut a horizontal tube six inches wide leaving the bottom hem intact so I could use it for the bottom hem on my new t-shirt. I slipped the tube on around my hips and since it had fit me well before I cut into it, it now fit snugly around my hips. Perfect!

I used chalk to mark both the bottom of the t-shirt and the top of the tube at the middle front, middle back and left and right sides. After pinning the bottom of the t-shirt to the top (cut side) of the lavender tube, right sides together, stretching the tube to match the marks on the t-shirt and so that the t-shirt was gathered to fit the circumference of the tube, I stitched it all together, put it on and fell in love.

t-shirt gathered to fit tube

 

 

view from the front

view from the side

 

I did try it on with Eeyore in front but I like the surprise of Eeyore on the back and felt that it looked a little more grown-up than entering a room with Eeyore greeting everyone.

I’m so happy with how this refashion turned out that I’ve been looking for oversize tops and coordinating Spandex shirts at garage sales ever since. I’ve made a few more and each one has turned out very different. For instance, I applied the same tactic to an over-sized see-through lace blouse which I wear over all sorts of cami’s and tank tops. I love that it pairs well with either jeans or a pencil skirt.

Rolls Royce Halter Top

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It’s summer so you’ll be seeing a lot more t-shirt refashions coming out of the Irish Attic. It’s hot in Southern CA and it will be hot and humid in Michigan, the two places I’ll be this summer. So t-shirts will be a wardrobe staple, but there’s nothing that says they have to be the same-o-same-o boxy crew-necks that or fitted v-necks that I see all over the place.

This isn't my t-shirt but I found an exact replica on-line.

 

I bought this t-shirt when I was out and about one day and the weather turned way too hot to be wearing what I had on. I stopped into a Target store to grab a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and went on my way. While I really did like this t-shirt I was just not into the basic crew-neck so out came the scissors … I must apologize for the lack of “during” pictures but I once again got so excited that I grabbed the t-shirt, started hacking and sewing and was done before I thought that I might want to post this as a tutorial. I’ll try to make up for the lack of pictures by giving you all a very detailed tutorial.

I started by cutting a straight line thru both front and back of the t-shirt just below the neckband. Then fold the t-shirt in half lengthwise and mark where the center front is. Smooth the t-shirt out flat on your work surface and mark a line from under the sleeves to the center point. I rolled my rotary cutter down the line and off came both sleeves leaving me with a triangle shaped top portion. Flip the shirt over, mark and cut a straight line from the bottom of the armhole, or since the armhole is now non-existent cut from the bottom of the triangle on one side straight across to the other side taking care to cut only thru the back layer of the t-shirt.

At this point you can cut the hem off the bottom of the t-shirt to use for your binding or leave as is and use a contrasting fabric as binding. I left my hem intact and used a white t-shirt, cut into strips for my binding. You can choose to finish your t-shirt the easy way or the hard way. I chose the hard way because I really liked how the laced binding would look, but it takes lots more of your binding fabric and a bit more time. I snipped very small holes about 1/2 inch from the top, approximately 1/2 inch apart and all the way across the back of the t-shirt from side seam to side seam. I measured how much binding I would need to bind the back, up the armholes to meet in the middle of the shirt and have enough to tie behind my neck in a bow and added and extra foot to give me enough for the lacing across the back. I marked the middle of my binding and the middle of the back of the shirt and started lacing from the middle of the shirt until I reached the side seam, gathering the back slightly as I went. Then I pinned the binding to the armhole and up to the top of the triangle. I did the same on the other side, crossing the binding over the 1st piece of binding at the top of the triangle. Tried it on, adjusted the lacing to make sure there was no gaping, sewed the binding in place from the bottom of the armhole to the top of the triangle.

The easy way would be to skip the lacing and pin the binding to the shirt, gathering the back of the shirt so that there is no gaping when wearing the shirt. Try it on, make your adjustments and then stitch in place.

And this is what you’ll end up with …

front view

I’m not showing the back view because I can’t get a good pic of it today. I’ll try to get a better pic and post it later. The lacing is just an over and under thing. Experiment with it and you’ll find your Zen.

Option 2 – Tank Top

If you shy away from halter tops you can easily make this as a tank top by eliminating the step where you cut straight across the back. Make a small hole 1/2 inch from the top of the triangle at the back only. Start your binding at the top of the back of the shirt and around the armhole crossing over at the top front of the shirt. Put the shirt on and slip both sides of the binding thru the hole at the back and tie.

 

 

 

 

Halter Top Refashioned From a T-shirt

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There are so many ways to quickly and easily make your own halter top and with summer coming I’m sure I’ll be making lots of them. My first one this season is a refashion made from one of those boring crew neck t-shirts that’s been hanging out in my closet since the 80’s. Seriously? Yes, seriously. I loved the color and the graphic on the front so I wanted a halter design that wouldn’t mess with the graphic and this is what I came up with. I’m not claiming to have invented this design, the triangle halter is a common halter design, but I had to figure out a way to make it work with my t-shirt and if you have a t-shirt that you want to try this with check out the step-by-step below. One thing I wanted to show you with this tutorial is a way to deal with a common problem with refashioning t-shirts and that’s that the cut edges often sag and don’t look finished. This is just one way to handle that. I’ve since made a few more of these t-shirt halters and each time I came up with a new way to deal with the saggy sides and back. I’ll post those tutorials a bit later in the month.

Once again I was so excited to get started on this refashion that I forgot to take a pic of the t-shirt before I attacked it with my scissors. Imagine a crew neck t-shirt that fits you fine but is just plain boring. Got the pic in your head? Good. That’s my before pic.

Not my t-shirt, but a close approximation.

I started by cutting around the collar to remove it completely from the shirt. Don’t throw it out, though. I save all the ribbing I cut from t-shirts in a box which I pull from to make other refashions. Ribbing from collars and hems from sleeves and bottoms of t-shirts make great straps for cami’s and halters, drawstrings, trim for edges of refashioned t-shirts …

Then I cut from just below each armhole to the center of the top of the t-shirt cutting through both the front and back of the t-shirt. To make sure that your shirt is cut straight and evenly fold your t-shirt in half lengthwise. Use masking tape or paper tape to mark a line from just below the armhole to the center top of the shirt. Unfold and you’ll see that the top of the t-shirt now looks like a triangle.

I then cut straight across the back of the t-shirt (folding the front of the t-shirt down so that I didn’t accidentally cut it) to line up with the cut at the front that started below the armhole to make this a halter. I used the masking tape trick to make sure that my line was straight. You can also use a ruler, but I find that the tape works really well for me especially when I’m cutting a line that is longer than my ruler. Again, save your scraps, you’ll find good uses for them as you continue to refashion. Hint: short sleeves cut away to make a halter make great pockets. More on that in a future post (or two).

Originally I made a slit at the front top of the shirt and inserted a ribbon to tie it like a halter but this looked pathetic. The armholes sagged and looked ridiculous. Back to the drawing board.

I had a pair of pants that I had refashioned and there was a self-belt left over that was basically a tube of striped fabric. I marked the center of the belt and pinned it to the halter starting at the center back and crossing it at the top to create a tie at the back of the neck for my new halter.

Silly little belt reborn as a halter strap.

I slightly gathered the fabric at the back of the halter so that it would no longer sag.

Back of halter.

Little Red T Becomes A Brand New Halter

After looking at my new top a bit in a mirror which allowed me to see my back I saw that the belt wasn’t soft and flowy enough to work as a tie but that if I attached a button so that it could be a circle around to the back of my neck, it would look great. And it did ! See for yourself.

Ta-da!

Good morning new halter top. So happy to meet you.

That’s it folks. There ain’t no more. Although my brain’s already whirring with all kinds of variations of this top. It’s the perfect style for when I want to preserve the graphic on the front of the shirt, so I’m sure you’ll see more reincarnations of this in future posts.

 

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