T-shirt refashion tutorial

Ok! Here's my first tutorial. This is a shirt I made last weekend. After seeing a similar one on Pinterest, I just had to make it! So many of you were asking me how I made it, so here you go!

You will need:
     An old knit t-shirt (or a yd. of fabric will do)
     Coordinating fabric for the bow (2- 45"x 6" pieces)
     scissors (or rotary cutter)
     Straight pins
     3 safety pins
     Sewing machine (or needle & thread if you are up to a hand-sewing challenge!)
     Measuring stick/tape
     Iron (as in the clothes kind, not the metal kind...or the mineral kind)

This is what I started with: my husband's old t-shirt he was getting rid of. (It didn't sell in our yard sale, so I pulled it and a few other items out that I knew had good fabric I could re-purpose with)

I simply cut off the sleeves and the neck, making a big square

I wanted the shirt to be long enough, so I actually decided to make the words go along one of the side seams (you'll see later). Next, I held it up to me & measured how much fabric I needed for it to fit me, then cut the shirt again.

I made it about 23" long by 19" wide.

Next, I pinned a 1.25" hem at what I wanted to be the top of the shirt. (You can choose to iron your pinned hem if you'd like so it will better stay when you are sewing. I on the other hand iron as little as possible so I skip this almost every time.)
This is actually not a hem, but the tube your sash with fit through! Then I sewed it with a straight stitch (you could pick any stitch really) and black thread so the stitch wouldn't really show.

Once the tube was sewn, I set it aside for a while to work on the sash (bow) part of the shirt. I had a bunch of different fabrics I could use, but opted for a light pink satin. I thought this would soften the plain ol' knit fabric and make it feel/look a little fancier than it's used t-shirt counterpart.

For the sash, I cut two pieces of satin, each 45" by 6". Then I laid them out end to end to get one long piece that is 90" by 6". (Next time I might shave a couple inches off the length, but it is totally up to you and your preferences of how long you want your bow.)
Look at the Mai Mai "helping" me. Right before I took this picture, she was actually laying ON the sash *Sigh* She just wants to be with Mama I suppose :)

Next, I pinned the two pieces together with about 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance, right sides (silky sides) facing each other. This picture is when it was all spread out 90" long. To sew it, if you hold the pieces by the pinned part (so the length is only 45" long) you can easily sew the 6" seam.

Now don't be mad, because I don't have a picture of the next part, so let me paint a picture with my words...

Open the sash length so it is 90" by 6". Fold in half length-wise (hotdog style) :) so you have a 90" by 3" piece of fabric. Again, right sides facing, pin all the way down the 90" length. (I changed out my thread and bobbin & used white thread for this next part). Now STOP and read below before you sew:

*Now it is very important to make sure BEFORE you sew that you are sewing a long, 90" by 3" sash. DON'T fold it over and sew a 45" by 3" sash and then have to rip all the seams and re-sew, causing you to stay up until 2 am making this simple shirt...Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.

Ok, now that you've read the disclaimer, you may sew. You only need to sew the one long side, you do not need to sew the folded edge.

Now, what to do with the ends you ask? Why, I was just getting to that you fast learner you!
 Sew a diagonal stitch on one end like so:

There's one of two ways you can do this. You can sew the diagonal when you get to the end of sewing your long 90" seam, then cut off the excess fabric.
OR!
You can stop when you get to the end of your 90" seam, cut the fabric on a diagonal and sew along that diagonal line.

I think the latter is a little easier. For me, I can more easily CUT a straight diagonal than I can SEW a straight diagonal. But again, it's whatever you prefer.

Now what about the other end? You will eventually sew another diagonal, but for now, leave it open. You want a nice big opening to be able to turn the sash inside out. In fact, I left the end open, plus about 3 inches of the side seam. See?

Now get to turning that thing inside out! I did it pantyhose style. I held the open end with my thumbs and used my fingers to scrunch all the way down to the end. Then, I grabbed the other end and started feeding it out the opening. If you've ever turned a sock inside out, then you can do this. It's like turning out a giant sock...for a really long, skinny foot.

Now once you have that sucker turned inside out, you can hand or machine stitch it closed. I opted for machine because it was past midnight and my patience was in bed, like I should have been.

From there, I ironed the sash (I know shock! I actually used the iron! That hardly ever happens...as is evident by my occasionally wrinkly wardrobe. Whatever, it's my signature look)

You can see here, the big difference between ironing & not ironing

You definitely want to iron that baby flat.

Now you are finished with the sash! Hooray! Pat yourself on the back, make yourself a drink, grab some chocolate, and let's finish this thing!

Put a safety pin through one end of your sash, like so (really, there's no art to safety pinning anything, so there's not really a need for this picture. But for some reason I found a need for this picture, and not previous important pictures. That's how I roll.)

Now, remember that grey shirt we started a while ago, then neglected like...I don't know, something that gets neglected...I have nothing. Moving on!
I put the two pieces of shirt together (you guessed it, right sides facing), and safety pinned where I thought the armpit should fit. Just one pin on each side, and you can move them later. In fact, you'll probably move them later unless you're just totally amazing.

Then, I just fished the sash through the holes of the tube you made earlier.

Bring the sash through both sides of the shirt. The sash will make a U with one side having the loose extra ribbon flowing down.

Now put that sucker on! We are almost done!

Now if this isn't getting personal. You are witnessing my embarasing, ugly hall bathroom that I've yet to have time to remodel since we moved in; and my no makeup self at no way o'clock in the morning. I must really want you guys to get to know me on a deep level.

Back to business: See above how I need to move my pins? No biggie. After this picture was taken, I moved the safety pins to where I wanted the arm holes to be.
Now take it off. (You don't have to, but I've found that sewing is easier when it's off your body. Just sayin.)

I just pinned from the safety pins down to the bottom, switched my thread and bobbin back to black, and sewed up the side seams! (See how the words from the t-shirt are on the side seam? Just a little shift-a-roo!)

Once the sides are sewn, flip that shirt right side out, and then model it like so:

Oooh...Aaah

Now you may be thinking, "Wait! we didn't do anything with the arm holes or hemming the bottom!" And I'm saying, "You're dang right we didn't! That's how I planned it!"
Let me explain: being the novice sewer that I am, I picked a knit fabric. When you cut a knit and stretch it, it just rolls up. It doesn't fray or anything, so you don't have to hem or use bias tape or anything!

See? It's like magic :)

And this is me wearing it to church the next day.

And this is what Mailey did the next day with the scraps I left laying on the floor:

Was she excited about the project, or mad that I didn't let her help more? We may never know.

Alright folks! There she is! A wonderful idea of how to re-purpose a shirt you very well might have sitting around your house!

Check back tomorrow for my adventures of the Hwy. 127 yard sale-- the longest, most awesome, most dangerous yard sale in the history of the world...or at least the Eastern seaboard...of the United States.

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Love,