New Old Shirt

On Fridays at school, we have color day. We don't have to wear a staff shirt, but we try to wear our school colors. Our staff shirts are men's t-shirts, which are never flattering. I was tired of mine, and I wanted to revamp this shirt into something I would like to wear. I found this website that has several tutorials on embellishing t-shirts, which helped me to make this shirt.

• I first decided to cut off the bottom edge of my shirt. I tried it on and and folded it up until it hit where I felt it was flattering, and cut it off. It was 3".
• Next, I pulled out my patterns and found a scoop neck that I liked. I cut my neckline to that shape. I did this both on the front and back, but then thought I ruined it because the back of the neckline should have been higher. I finally realized I could gather the neck edge which would also bring it in so the sleeve seams would actually be on my shoulders. I also finished the neck off with a strip of binding to make it more secure.

• Using the cut off edge of the t-shirt, I cut an 1 1/4" strip, then gathered it down the middle. I arranged these strips on the front of the shirt to my liking, which also hid the logo.
• Next I cut a 1" strip and gathered it down the middle and wound it up to make the flowers. More details for making the flowers can be found on the website I linked above.

• I still had a bit of the remaining logo on the back of the shirt. I cut a little strip of the leftover ruffle and sewed it over the logo. You can see a bit of it peaking out in this picture.
• Last, I finally tried it on again, rolled the sleeves until they fell where I like them, measured, and cut them off. Again, it was 3".

Now I have a shirt I would be happy to wear anywhere on any day of the week. I'm now shopping in my closet and in my scraps to revamp more of my wardrobe. I can't wait to redo another shirt.