Four Shirts Four Ways ~ Light Beige ~

Hi everyone! This is my last of the four t-shirt makeovers and I really had a hard time deciding what to do with this one. Since this is one of my favorite colors I really wanted to make something I would wear all the time, rather than experiment and oops, I don't think I am going to wear this...

So, after thinking it over for a while, I have decided to do one of my very favorite styles. Remember my original ruffle shirt? I used the same idea, but changed it a little bit to give it more of a boutique feel to it.


{You will need}

Two of the same shirts
Matching thread
About 4 yards of lace (mine is a little less than 1/2" wide)
Two small buttons

{How to}

1. Lay the shirt flat on the cutting board and cut the t-shirt. Cut the bottom, cut the middle part into five parts, that are 2"wide.


2. Take four out of those five loops, cut both sides off to make 2" X 14" strips. The last loop needs to be longer than the others, so cut just one side off. This one will be the ruffle to go on the front neck line.


3. Add lace to the bottom of the strips using a zig-zag stitch.


4. Seal the edges with fray check.


5. Make ruffles. Stitch one side with the largest stitch setting on your sewing machine. Pull one thread to gather the fabric.


6. I wanted to bring the neckline higher for this design, so I cut the very bottom piece of fabric to fill in the v-neckline. Sewed with zig-zag.


7. Pin the longest ruffle to the neckline. I decided not to go all the way around the neck, so when I wear this shirt in the Fall with a cardigan, the back won't be so bumpy.


8. Keep adding the ruffles. Make sure that those ruffles will overlap each other a little bit.




9. Lay the t-shirt flat on table and mark the middle part of the sleeves. Fold the sleeve and stitch two places to secure the pleats. Add button.

 
10. I made some flowers with the leftover fabric pieces. Although, I couldn't decide if I liked the t-shirt with flowers or without. So, I made it in to a corsage...


Many places are having such good sales on summer items right now. If you find great deals on t-shirts, that will be your chance to make a one of a kind shirt for yourself on a small budget! My Four Shirts Four Ways challenge is over, but I will be doing more t-shirt makeovers in the future. They are lots of fun!

Four Shirts Four Ways ~Dark Green~

I started seeing many fall fashion lines lately... I wanted to make something with that in mind for this shirt. The color of this t-shirt reminded me of my brown boots that would go perfect with this shirt.


Here is what I did:

{You will need}

Two t-shirts of the same color
Matching thread
two buttons

{How to}

1. Take one t-shirt lay it flat, than cut 5 - 2" wide loops.


2. Take two of the loops out of the five loops from step 1, cut the sides off, and cut them horizontally to make 1" wide strips. You should have 8 - 1" wide strips. You will need 7 for the front ruffles.

3. Sew in the middle of the 1" wide strips with largest stitches on your sewing machine. Pull one thread to make ruffles. Place a ruffle in the middle of the shirt and sew it onto the shirt.


4. Make more ruffles. Make the second ruffle less rufflely than the first one(see the picture). Place it right next to the first ruffle and sew.

 
5. Repeat the process. From left; 1, 3, 5, 7 - less ruffly. 2, 4, 6, normal ruffle.


6. For the sleeves, find the middle and fold the sleeve like the picture to make a pleat. Sew it to secure the pleat. Add a button to hide the stitches.


7. For the bottom of the shirt, take 2 - 2 "wide loops, cut one side to make them in to strips. Piece them together to make one big loop. Use the largest stitches, sew both side of the edges. Pull one thread from both(top & bottom) to make ruffles. They won't be too ruffly, just little bit.

For the thin ruffle above the thick ruffle, take 1 - 2" wide loop, cut in half horazontally to make a 1" wide loop. Then cut one side open to make strips. Piece these two strips together to make a loop. Sew in the middle with the largest stitches, pull one thread to make ruffles.


8. To add the thick ruffle to the shirt, twist it every now and then and pin. Sew in the middle. Also, I sewd along the big stitches that made ruffles with zig-zag stitches to give some stability and character.

Sew the thin ruffle loop in the same manner as the thick ruffle loop. With this, I only sewed the middle of the strip.



9. Ta da... It's finished!



I was thinking that I could wear this shirt paired up with a long sleeve shirt underneath or with a jacket over it. Next week is my last four shirt four ways post... I haven't decided what I am going to do, but be sure to come back to see what I am up to!

Four Shirts Four Ways ~Navy~

When I was brain storming some t-shirt refashion designs for the "Four Shirts Four Ways", I wanted to work with the navy shirt first, but I couldn't quite finalize the design.

I am so happy that I was able to make the shirt almost exactly the way I pictured it in my mind. It might look a little more complicated than my other ruffle shirt, but don't be afraid! It is quit simple, it is just a little time consuming when sewing the beads on, but the result is totally worth it!

Here is what I did:

{You will need}

2 of the same t-shirt
matching thread
two different kind of beads

{How to}

1. Take one of the t-shirt, lay it flat on the cutting board, make sure that there are no whrinkles. Cut 4 - 2 1/4" wide strips.


2. Cut one side of the 2 1/4" loops to open the loop and make it in to strips. Piece two strips from the bottom to make a slightly larger loop, and take the other two pieces put together to make a slightly smaller loop.

 
3. Using large stitches, sew 1/4" from the one side and go all around the loop. Pull one thread to gather the fabric to make ruffles.

 
4, Pin the larger ruffled loop to the bottom (little above the seamline of the bottom) and sew. Pin the smaller ruffled loop above the first ruffle (so that the second ruffle will overlap a little with the first one) and sew.

 
5. Cut 2 - 1" wide loop from the t-shirt. Cut oneside open to make strips.


6. Sew in the middle of the strips in the same manner as step 3 to make ruffles.


7. Place the ruffles as you desire and pin them. It will be helpful to play around with it for a little bit to see what you like. I did mine on the left side of the neck and the right side of the bottom.

 
8. I wanted to make this ruffle shirt different than my other ruffle shirt, so I sewed some beads to give it a little sparkle.

 
9. Finished!


If you are not keen on the bead work, I think it is perfectly fine to stop at step 7. It is all up to you! Play with the ruffle strips, you might end up with something totally unique that fits your style. :)


I couldn't help but try on my new shirt... Our anniversary is comming up, this shirt might be the "one" for our date.

  

Four Shirts Four Ways ~Lavender~

I didn't have a particular design in mind for this "Four t-shirt makeover", but I remembered a shirt from JCrew that I found on their site (I couldn't find a link anymore). I used that as an inspiration, and came up with this shirt.


It is a little time consuming to cut out all the flowers, but the rest of the process is very easy to do. I will show you what I did.

{You need}

Two t-shirts of the same color

Matching thread

{How To}

1. Cut the t-shirt apart along the seam line.


2. From the back fabric, cut out 3 1/2" strips (my shirt was XS, and I was able to cut out 4 strips). Then, cut them into 20 - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" squares.

3. From the front and sleeve fabric, cut out 3 - 3" wide strips, and 4 - 1" wide strips. Use the picture as a guide. (There is a leftover piece in the middle)


4. From the 3" wide strips cut out 20 - 3" x 3" squares.


5. Make the flower template.


6. Cut out the flowers.

 
7. Mark four lines lightly on the other t-shirt. They are 2" apart on mine, but after I sewed everything on, I wished that I did them a little bit closer (perhaps, 1 1/2" apart maybe?).

If, you are lucky and have more volume around your chest area, you will want more strips and have them closer together.

Stretch the 1" strips so they will become like rope. Lay them on the t-shirt where you marked.


8. Take the flowers you cut out earlier. Combine two of the same size flowers together(lay them so that the bottom petal is showing between the top petal). Pin them onto the strips and the shirt. Start with 3 1/2" flowers around the neck, then, 3" flowers towards the bottom.


9. Sew in a straight line on top of the flowers.


10. Cut the end of the strips to make the fringe.


11. For this particular shirt, I liked the sleeves a little shorter, so I folded the sleeve twice and sewed them.


12. ...and, it is done!




That's it! Like I said in the beginning of the post, if I am going to make this again I would sew those strips closer together, but I still love the shirt. It is a little different from my normal ruffle shirts, and still feminine...

Thank you for checking out my new t-shirt makeover. Meanwhile I am off to start thinking about the design for next week's t-shirt makeover!