This project is inspired by a HUGE bag load of white blanks that
Can't Afford 'Em crafts donated to me in an effort to clear out some un-used materials. These tee's are a very large XXL - quite enough for a simplet skirt. So I went out and bought a test XXL shirt at the salvation army for .99¢ and dug up some used brown paper to draw out a pattern.
I used a worn and loved skirt as the basis for the pattern. I folded the skirt in half - so I made basically a 1/4 quarter pattern which will sit on a folded side and be needed to cut out twice to make the front and back of the skirt.
Then, I snipped up the tee - cut off the arms and up the side seams. You can cut off the neck ribbing as well, so it doesn't interfere with your fabric laying flat when actually cutting.
One of the great things about using an old tee is that you only have to sew the drawstring fold or elastic band and the sides - for the bottom hem, you can use the bottom of the tee shirt and save yourself the time. So I placed the pattern on to the folded shirt and cut this twice.
Tee shirt jersey knits have a back side - much like knitting, so make sure to sew with the right sides together. My test tee had a logo on it - so I am purposely going to sew the wrong sides together so the wrong side is facing out - free of corporate logos.
Choose a coordinating thread for your seams, or a contrasting one if that is part of your design or embellishment and you want it to stand out. I sewed up one seam, but wanted to do something special. My sewing machine has a slew of decorative stitches so after I sewed up one side, I followed the bottom hem with a nice contrasting decoration [after I, of course, tested the tension and stitch on some scrap fabric from the sleeves I cut off].
Lookin good!
Now just some quicky finishing. I had to scrounge around for some 1/4" elastic that I had from a handmade undie fiasco for the waist band. I measured my waist and then subtracted 5 inches so the elastic would have to stretch.
Stay tuned for more projects using tee's and some new items in my
shop!
-KimmKimmChi.etsy.com
If you've seen me out and about, you've probably seen some of these design, but I am just now getting to uploading them into my Etsy shop - it's been hard waiting for a sunny weekend to get some photography done!
