I've always had this idea that sewing a shirt is really hard and I'm just not quite up to snuff to pull it off. Lately, it seems like all of the DIY/sewing projects that I've been viewing have all been shirts and it was just the motivation that I needed to tackle an old F21 denim shirt that I bought when I was carrying Hugo. Initially, I was planning on upcycling it into some trendy pants for Hugo until I went to a consignment store and saw another girl rocking the same shirt. It really caught me off guard how good the shirt looked and I started to think that maybe there was more to this shirt than I was giving it credit. So, of course, the shirt sat in my closet for weeks until, once again, my good ole planner said that it was time to do something with it this week. I really needed to come up with a game plan but I wasn't too sure which way to go so I just started with before pictures. Really, really, awful before pictures.
Everything about this screams "too big" however, the neckline especially stood out to me. My shoulders and neck have always been my favorite features to emphasize so I knew that I wanted to start in this area and alter the shirt to match. First things first, the sleeves had to go and let me tell you seam ripping those sleeves took forever.
After that, I ironed the shirt which is when I really fell in love with the cuffs of the sleeves and decided to keep those for later. In the mean time, I seam ripped the back of the shirt from the neckline and opened the collar.
Here I marked the sides with my trusty fabric pen and ruler for the right fit and cut.
Then I folded the front of the shirt over to where my armpits would be and cut the back out.
Then I top stitched the sides to match the original seam. I sewed throughout the entire seam to make it look seamless.
I also reinforced the top seam around the collar as well as tucked in the raw edges of the collar/bias to have a strap.
And then I revisited those cuffs on the sleeve! I marked the width that I wanted to make a ruffle and cut it out.
Then I basted stitch across the raw edge and gathered. After gathering, I pinned the ruffle to the shirt with the wrong side facing the right side of the shirt and sewing along the raw edges.
From there, I decided to flip the shirt inside out and fold over slightly more than a 1/4" to create a casing for elastic. This way the shirt wouldn't be overwhelmingly large around my midsection but still hide my midsection. haha.
Then I went back and added the other ruffle.
Next, I needed to figure out what I was going to do as a bias along the front of the shirt. The back piece that I cut out was perfect for this. I cut out the length and width I needed and topstitched down the bias.
Before wrapping up, I fixed any issues near the elastic and side seam of the front of the shirt. It looked a little choppy, to me. Also, the collar/bias were uneven and I needed to even out the length so I could turn it into a strap. I just added to length by making more bias from the leftover fabric I had from the back piece. Then I marked the straps where I wanted them and attached.
And that's it! Now I have a fun, ruffle tank top that I can wear with sweaters or on it's own (when it's warmer!).
Sorry for another round of lame nighttime photos. Seriously, the struggle is real trying to squeeze in photos of myself during the day! Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this upcycle as I much as I did. This is actually one of my favorite upcycles because not only do I love the new design but I also accomplished something that I didn't think that I had the skill to do. Like my husband says, 'winning!'
Until next week!
XO
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