When my daughter was a baby I heard about a local sewing contest where the category was "Something New From Something Old." I ran to my closet and found one of my husband's collared shirts that he didn't need any longer and I made it into a cute little dress for my daughter. This was pre-CKC and pre-Pinterest so I just kind of made up a dress using what I had from his shirt, even the buttons. It was less than perfect but soooo cute on her. Ever since then I have been intrigued with up-cycled outfits and I've been keeping a list of my favorites. A long list.
My point? We're starting a new series on the blog that's all about re-fashioning, re-purposing, up-cycling -- or whatever you choose to call it! Some of our tutorials will use CKC patterns (such as the one we did earlier this week) and some of them won't need any pattern at all. And of course we will always put our CKC flair into them. Are we excited? Good! Because we're jumping right into one today!
Isn't this dinosaur halter tee adorable?! It's an up-cycle! And it pairs perfectly with Brenna's Bubble Shorts. If the super cute model looks a little familiar, it's because she was on our Monday blog as well! Tosha Smith from Sew Chic Children's Boutique has agreed to show us how she made this unique halter top using a purchased T-shirt. Using her step-by-step instructions we get to learn how to make some of our own! Here's Tosha:
Materials: T-shirt, elastic thread, and a scrap of knit.
Step 1: First we will lay out our T-shirt and cut one complete piece out of our shirt along the black Sharpie lines that are marked in the picture above and below. This will remove the sleeves, the front neckline, and straight across the back. The back cut should line up with the lowest part of the sleeves (armhole curve) as shown below.
After cutting, the back of the shirt should look like this:
This leaves most of the shirt front and the bottom portion of the back.
Step 2: Next we are going to measure the width of the shirt straps, right at the top edge.
Step 3: Use that measurement to cut a piece of knit to go around the back of the neck. This piece will be the width we just measured. For the length of the piece we will use the following chart for our desired size:
Step 4: Pin the two short edges of the neck piece to the two short edges of the straps, with right sides together. Sew the pinned edges.
Step 5: We are now ready to shirr! There are two complete circles to shirr: one around the neck and one around the arms & back. The number of rows we shirr will depend on how big the shirt was to begin with and how small we want it to end up. For example, the minion shirt is my daughter's size so it fit pretty well to begin with and I only needed one row of shirring. The dinosaur shirt, however, was one size too big so I did multiple rows of shirring. We can add as many rows as we'd like for more tightness!
The edges will be gathered and stretchy like this when we're finished. If you have not shirred before, you may find our Shirring 101 Tutorial very helpful. We know you can do it and this is the perfect project to try it out on!
Are you ready to see the finished product?
How cute is this!? The perfect halter tee. I just love minions and there's no doubt that she's going to be comfy and stylish all summer long. And it was that easy to make!
Thank you, Tosha, for another great up-cycle tutorial!
I hope you all love it as much as I do and that you're excited for our new series of up-cycles. There are so many fun ways that we can think outside the box with our sewing projects.
Let's Create! ~ Kristen
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