Here is a story of a little T-shirt that was too small and a husband who liked the image on it. This is how I salvaged it for him and ended with a cute hat for myself too.....what? Seems random, but that's my story. Lets go.....
You will need:
-your t-shirt that you want to salvage
-A newer, pre-washed shirt to attach the image to
-rotary cutter or scissors
-pins
-power drink of your choice (optional)
My power drink of choice is Diet Pepsi. For the summer it's in a ball jar with a cool straw (acrylic straw from Crate and Barrel).
Begin by cutting you t-shirt down one side so you can cut out the image. I used a yardstick so I could use my rotary cutter, but you can just cut from the neck if you would like. This does not need to be very straight because the edge of the fabric will curl up a little after washing.
(Your screen does not need adjusting, I do have that many freckles)
Next, just line up on your newer shirt where you would like and pin down. You could choose a nice contrasting color for your new shirt too. This is for my hubby so black it is.
Of course he wanted black thread too, which I didn't have on hand. I went out and bought some which made the project a little longer. So, you might want to check on that before you get started. I think a contrasting thread color would look really good too.
Now you want to just sew down your image, about a 1/2" or 1/4" from the edge. I also sewed around the full image with a stitch on the shirt just as a decorative edge. T-shirt material is great to work with because it won't fray, so you don't need to do the extra step of sewing a seam around the edge.
The sewing part seemed a little like wrangling a wild animal under my machine, but I survived.
I was a dork and went in from the neck instead of the other way. Did I mention you don't have to have Ninja sewing skills for this?
In the end, you have a happy hubby with a newer shirt. He like the edge around the image better than the original.
Yeahhhh!
Now on to the next bonus project....
And here is my little hat made with the left-over shirt material. I was going to do a separate post for this, but I wanted to give you all some ideas so you wouldn't toss that left-over fabric. The original shirt was a small, so I had to be creative with cutting (crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out a little).
This is the coolest little hat, I refer to the style as a "pageboy hat", but I don't know what else to call it. I got all the directions from a talented gal named Kalleen who has a blog called At Second Street. If you follow the link, you can find all the measurements and such. She did a great job with the directions.
So have fun checking your closets for those old t-shirts you haven't worn in a while. If you have little ones this is a great way to move up to a larger size and keep you kids favorite images without spending as much. You can pick up great solid color shirts at the Red Dot Boutique (Target) or the big "W" that would be a good backdrop.
I will be sharing with:
Strut Your Stuff Thursdays atSomewhat Simple
