Spiffing up a cheap T-Shirt

5/8/2014

I bought one of those cheap T-shirts they sell at Joann's intending to turn it into yet one more piece of my mix and match fairy wear wardrobe I wore at Costume Con last month, but ... sigh ... not everything I planned to do got done.

So, I've decided to turn in into a cute top to wear this summer. I am impatiently awaiting warmer weather.

Men's style t-shirts, in my opinion are always too long, the sleeves, too. So, I fold up the bottom and the sleeves to the length I like.

Which meant I trimmed off 4" at the bottom and 3" off each sleeve. I then did a skinny little hem with my serger.

This gives a more feminine edge instead of the stiff formal hem it came with. Looks better already.

I pulled some grey lace scraps out from my stash and ...

decided this was the winner.

The plan was to make a beautifully shaped symmetrical yoke on this shirt, but I really liked the jagged shaped of this lace remnant, so I kept it.

Now, this is when a dress form in your size comes in really handy. I just started pinning the lace, as I liked it, to the t-shirt so it laid smoothly over the shoulders.

I knew there would have to be a seam somewhere and I also knew, since this lace doesn't stretch, I would need some kind of a slit to be able to pull this over my head. So I decided to have a long opening in the center back, allowing the back yoke to point downward.

But, I wasn't careful and didn't allow enough on one side of the back slit for a hem. But, I contend, there is a fix for all problems and saw that the selvedge edge of this lace was good, so I cut off a strip along the selvedge following the lace motifs.

Pinned it along the back opening on both sides and zig zagged, following the motifs, in place.

Trimmed away the excess from the back side.

And I like the results better than a plain hem.

Then I do the same thing with the entire yoke. I zig zag the cut edge to the t-shirt where pinned.

And again, trim away the excess from the back.

I'm liking this!

I thought I would want to put a narrow binding, using some of the fabric trimmed off the hem of this shirt around the neck, but I like so much the delicate edge of the cut lace I want to see how I can keep that.

I run a zig zag test on a scrap of this lace and it works. I was worried it would stretch out or do something else undesirable. So, after smoothing out the curve of the neck, I simply zig zag all around it.

But, there is something I can use some of the cut off fabric for. Even though I've shorted this shirt, I am still finding it tight around my hips. So if I take out the 1" hem on this 4" strip cut from the bottom, I can get 5" squares for ...