T-Shirt Pattern with Tuxedo Ruffle

I have a couple of favorite T-Shirts. You can tell they are my favorite because of the stains and holes! With some extra fabric laying around (ha ha) I decided to make a pattern out of my favorite T-Shirt and make a new T-Shirt. This was one of the easiest article of clothing that  I have ever made with out a store bought pattern! Even the beginning sewer can sew this T-Shirt. 

First Start by finding one of your t-shirts that is only two pieces of fabric. One that doesn't have sewn on sleeves. If you want to make a pattern for later use, lay the t-shirt onto wrapping paper and trace a pattern onto the wrapping paper making sure to add extra for the seam. Cut two pieces of fabric out. Lay the wrong sides together. If you want to pin the pieces together you can. Because this pattern is pretty straight forward I didn't pin my pieces together.

Start sewing by sewing the shoulders together. Then sew the sides together. 

Next sew your seams. I started with the bottom then the collar and sleeves. 

Here is the shirt I traced and the finished project.

I needed (wanted) to add something a little dressier to this t-shirt so I decided to add a tuxedo type ruffle. Measure how long you wand your ruffle to be. I wanted my finished ruffle to be approximately 14 inches so I cut my piece about 21 inches long. Fold a piece of fabric in half and cut a wave in the fabric the length you want. Cut a second piece about 1/2 inch smaller than the first piece. 

Ruffle each piece. 

Sew the larger ruffle piece onto the center front of the shirt. Then sew the second ruffle on top of the larger ruffle. After washing the ruffle will role a little bit. After I washed mine I ended up cutting the ruffle down. Try the shirt on and see how it looks. At first I felt the ruffles were jumping off of my chest!

Here's the finished product! 

Enjoy! 

Spray Painted T-Shirt with Doilies

My second son turned 17 last month and I was shopping with him at my home away from home Target. While looking at the men's clearance they had T-shirts on clearance for $2.48! They were either grey or yellow. Since yellow isn't a good color on me I bought a grey shirt that was a size larger than what I wear with the intent of altering it. 

I started by cutting off some of the length of the sleeve.

Next, I cut the neck line off and made it larger. I then used Steam-A-Steam 2 to finish off the edges of the sleeves and the neckline. I then stitched the edges with a double needle to give it a more finished look. 

Now comes the spray paint and doilies. I used 8" and 10" doilies for the pattern. I also used Krylon Black for Plastics. I used this kind of spray paint because it is what I had in my closet. You will want to put something inside of your t-shirt so that the paint doesn't go threw the back side. Here I used some foam core. You could also use cardboard, freezer paper or bunch of news papers. I also didn't want to get spray paint on the garage floor so I laid some cardboard down under the shirt. Because I wasn't sure how the shirt would look I tested with some doilies and scrap jersey material to see how it would turn out. I tried with white first but didn't like the look on grey so I used the black. 

Lay the doilies onto the shirt for placement. I played with them for a little bit before I started spraying. 

I wanted a layered look so I laid some extra fabric under the doilies where I didn't want the spray paint to go through.  

You will want to spray about 10" away from the shirt in a light sweeping motion. If you get trigger happy you will end up with some dark edges that you won't be able to fix. Each time after I sprayed the t-shirt I immediately removed the doilies.

Continue to cover up any areas that you don't want to get spray paint on and move the doilies around to finish your design. 

I sprayed the shirt 3 times but figured it need a little more.

I sprayed a few more times and even sprayed some on the sleeve.

The shirt wasn't quite fitting right so I gathered the sleeve up to the collar of the shirt. I also tailored the sides a bit to make it more form fitting. 

Here is the finished product!

I was inspired by a shirt I saw on Pinterest that used doilies to decorate their shirt. I thought that I saved it to one of my boards but can't find it. If it is your shirt let me know and I will give you proper credit. I was also inspired by a shirt that was made on The Winthrop Chronicles. 

Logo Polo Upcycled to Decorative T-Shirt

In Arizona April, May, September and October are wedding months. So the past month and a half I had wedding flowers to design every weekend on top of Easter, Secretaries Day and Mothers Day. Normally I work around 25 to 30 hours. Two week in a row I worked 60 hours each week. So no time to post and no time to create anything new. I actually designed this shirt back in March and I am finally at a point that I can post about it! (And hope that I remember how I did it)

So I have several polo shirts with logos on them that have been hanging in the back of my closet since I stopped working for the company. I knew I could upcycle them some how! So for this transformation I used 2 shirts. Start off by cutting the collar off of one of the shirts.

Next you will add this wonderful product called Steam-A-Seam 2. You will apply all the way around the edge of the collar of the shirt.

Next take off the backing of the Steam-A-Seam 2 and fold it over. Now you will use your iron to steam the seam. This will activate the adhesive and leave you with a nice finished edge. The Steam-a-Seam 2 helped the collar no not pucker when sewing and I didn't have to pin it down. Just for kicks I decided to sew a seam for a more finished look. 

Here is the finished look.

Now you will use the second shirt. First cut off the bottom edge. Next cut a 4 inch section out of the middle of the shirt. You will now have a tube/circle. Take the tube/circle and cut once to make a long strip.

Sew a Gathering stitch down the center of the strip leaving long threads at each end for gathering. 

Fold the strip in half with the stitch in the center. Using the bottom thread pull to gather the strip to make a ruffle. 

Pin the ruffle on the outside of the logo in a circle. Sew the ruffle to the shirt. Before you close the circle start to turn the ruffle 1/4 inch inside of the circle. At this point you will keep turning and sewing and turning and sewing till you get to the center of the flower. when you get to the center of the flower make a few back stitches to hold it in place. 

Here is the finished flower. Once I tried the shirt on I felt the flower was a little off centered. So I added another flower. 

After washing the shirt the flowers scrunched up a little bit and I could now see the edges of the logo. So I then stitched down the outer edge of the flower to hide the logo. I now look at shirts with logos at the thrift store a little differently and wonder what can I do to hide that logo. I hope you enjoy transforming one of your polo shirts into a t-shirt or covering up a logo just as much as I have!

Up Cycled Long Sleeve Shirt with Lace

I'm on the band wagon of Up Cycling T-Shirts lately. It's more of a wanting to update my wardrobe and not wanting to spend any money! I started with a long sleeve t-shirt and cut off the sleeves.

Then I cut a piece of lace to fit the inside of the neck line. I cut it square, pinned the lace to the inside of the shirt and trimmed the lace. Then I did a double stitch on the outside of the shirt so I would make sure the stitching looked right. Then I trimmed the lace closer to the stitching.

I almost left it like this. Then I decided to add a thin piece of lace around the sleeves. 

Pretty enough like this but then I decided to try and make the sleeve gathered. I started about 4 inched down from the shoulder by making a few stitches and back stitching. Then sewed a basting stitch down to the edge of the sleeve leaving a long tail of thread. 

I then pulled the bottom thread to gather the sleeve. 

Then take the top thread and thread it through to the bottom of the lace. Tie a few knots to secure the gathering. Cut the extra thread off.

Self portrait of the finished project, hence the cut off head and no smile! Which shirt will I do next?