Tutorial~Repurposed Shirts And A Guest Post

Today I am over on Luvinthemommyhood sharing my thoughts on babies, oatmeal for their skin, and a picture without make-up as part of her Baby Bonanza, won’t you come say hi?  She is having a baby soon and has invited an amazing group of bloggers to guest post…you won’t want to miss one of them, they are going to be great!

And for those of you that just popped over from there, welcome!  Shall we get started?  Yes, lets.

I love lightweight knit shirts.  I seem to have every color available in just about every style.  The only problem with these shirts is that over time they tend to shrink up a bit and lose their shape.  So I was looking at them the other day trying to think of what I should do with them.  That is the problem with the internet these days, it convinces you that you can’t throw anything away.  Nothing!  Surely there is a use for it.  That’s what today’s tutorial is meant to do, get your mind thinking about how you could use yours.

The nice thing about using these shirts for little girls clothing is that the hard work is already done for you.  They already have a nice hem on the bottom, gathers in all the right places and they work for infants on up to your 14 year old, depending on your needs.  They work great for jammies, lounge wear, shorts, pants, dresses, shirts….really anything.

I am making a swimsuit cover-up for my little girl today.  I used an old shirt that no longer fit me and it literally took twenty minutes start to finish.  A nap time project!  Wahoo!

The shirt I used was perfect for the length I needed, had a cute little gather in the neckline and a great color for little girls.

I started by taking a shirt that fit my daughter well and placed it on top of the shirt, lining up both of the necklines.

Using the shirt as my guide I cut the sides off up to the armholes as shown.

I then cut around the arm holes and right along the neckline leaving the seam intact as shown.

Next I cut the back side of the shirt off of the seam.

Pulling the neckline down I then cut the back about a half an inch above the front and trimmed off the corners to make a nice line to sew.

I cut the neckline in half, and will alter it later.

Turn the front and back pieces right sides together and pin.

Sew a straight stitch with a ¼ inch seam allowance down the sides, and then lay the seam open and do a zigzag stitch.

Sew the armholes by folding the edge under a ¼ inch and sew a straight stitch.  Then sew the top of the back piece in the same manner.

You can do your straps many different ways but I decided just to cut them down and sew to the back.  I would have made them to tie at the top, but hey were not quite long enough.

I sewed them on the back with a zigzag stitch and plenty of back stitching.  All done!  Unless you want to add a fun little flower…

Cut three small circles from your shirt.

Pinch the circle at the center and with a needle and thread sew together to make a petal.

Repeat with all three circles and sew all three together as you go.  Secure with the fanciest knot you know.

Then sew it on…isn’t it cute?!

It will even work great as a night gown, or spring dress I think.

I hope this gets you looking at all your old shirts in a new light, so much potential, no?  Lots and lots of possibilities!  I will be using the rest of those for some other projects you will see popping up here and there…stay tuned!

I also shared this over on Becca’s Show and Tell on Blue Cricket Design.