Sewing is not an exact science

SO! I was talking about how I was going to transform one of Mike’s discarded shirts into something I could wear — and I’m finally done!

I operated on this t-shirt.

A large men’s t-shirt from Mark’s.

The button panel in the front was a bit of an issue. But I had an idea.

I first separated the front and back of the shirt, then I cut off the sleeves and the bottom half of the front piece.

Then I drew two lines from the shoulder to the centre point at the bottom edge and cut!

The button panel is completely out of the picture now.

Then I overlapped the two top pieces a bit in the centre and pinned them in place. To make sure that it’s width is wide enough for me I used an existing shirt that fits me well as a guide. I then trimmed the sides of the bottom half to match the width of the top half. Then I sewed the two halves together on the machine, with right sides facing each other.

With right sides facing each other, I pinned the sewn front piece onto the back piece of the t-shirt and kind of cut around the shape… (hence the title of this post :P)

Then I sewed the shoulder seams and side seams together on the machine.

Turned the refashioned shirt right side out… moment of truth – does it fit?! (Did I ever tell you that I never check gauge when I crochet? Apparently I don’t use the measuring tape much neither! :P)

AND it does!

It does fit, but I think it’s kind of missing something… I love raw edges on t-shirt materials because they don’t fray and they usually roll nicely, especially after a wash. But I’m kind of underwhelmed by the raw edges on the neckline. It just looked like I randomly cut apart a t-shirt and sewed it back together… which is exactly what I did, but I’d like to make it more presentable, if possible…

Then I remembered a book I bought last year, Crochet Adorned by Linda Permann, and I have been wanting to try making something from that book for a while now (actually, I tried making something but it completely flopped). It is a wonderful resource for crocheted trims and stuff… And I found a trim pattern that I thought would work well with this shirt, and so I made it with cotton thread, machine-washed the trim once in an effort to pre-shrink it (if it does shrink, I wasn’t sure… but I made the trim longer than what I needed for that purpose) and hand-stitched it onto the neckline…

… whip-stitching while rolling the raw edge under…

And then there it is! A new edge!

And a new shirt! :)

The blue and the white trim together reminds me of those blue porcelain plates.

I still have a couple of old pieces of clothing that I’m looking for ideas to refashion. Refashioning makes total sense to me because I find the construction part therapeutic and the process of coming up with new ideas exciting, whereas I find clothes-shopping at the mall or even at a second-hand shop stressful sometimes. I do like to look at clothes and get inspirations, but I find searching for a specific thing that I like frustrating…

Anyway, when I come up with ideas for more refashioning I’ll surely write and post pictures! Thank you for visiting and I hope your weekend was lovely!