Saturday, June 30, 2012

15 minute tee-shirt top

Sporting the cool Iron Man!
It's so much fun to have crafty friends visit!  My friend Nikki, who is visiting from the Pacific Northwest, found a fast and fun way to give an old tee-shirt a cool makeover at Crafter Hours.  With the Summer heat turned up we could all stand to be a little cooler.  A trip to the thrift store yielded excellent finds on perfectly worn in tee-shirts.   I turned around three times and ta-da!  Nikki had made a super cool shirt!  ..... I want one! .......and being a good sport Nikki not only made one for me, but showed me how to make them, and let me take pictures so I could share with you....she even came up with a few fun "extras" featured at the end of this tutorial!


 Lay the tee-shirt out nice and flat.  Cut the bottom hem off and set aside for later.  The bottom edge may need to be straightened.  

 Cut off the sleeves where they join the body of the shirt.  

Just underneath the neck,draw a line straight across the shirt, from arm opening to arm opening.

 Cut across the line you have drawn, through both the front and back of the shirt.  

 Turn under the cut edge by about an inch.  This will be the casing the tie fits through.  

Carefully pin the turned under edges.

Sew a straight stitch at about 1/8 of an inch from the turned under edge, to create a casing.  The sides remain open so the tie can be threaded through.
  
Find the hem you cut off in the first step. To make the tie, cut the hem in half with a nice, neat angular cut. Place a safety pen on one end. 

 Using the safety pen, thread the tie through the casing you made at the top of the shirt. 


Adjust the tie to fit! 

 It literally took Nikki 15 minutes from the start to the point of handing me the shirt to try on (even with me making her hold still for pictures).

Other old tee-shirt & tee-shirt scrap up-cycle ideas:

 Girl child wants to wear one as a dress....consider making one. 


 Use the scraps to dress-up the almost-teen as a Grecian Princess.

 Turn the cut off sleeves into fabulous head gear!

3 comments:

  1. I'm jealous of the Roslyn Cafe shirt from Northern Exposure, my favorite show.

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    1. I love the show, too! I found the shirt at a thrift store in WA years ago. It's from the actual Roslyn Cafe in Roslyn, WA. I visited there once, not much of a cafe, but fun for a Northern Exposure fan none the less!

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