Shirred t shirt makeover

THANK YOU to everyone who has offered to guest post! Thanks to you, I'll be able to have my entire week filled with posts AND still get everything done I need to. Huzzah! Look for some amazing guest posts this week. Seriously, there are some wickedly talented ladies out there.

You might remember that I was in quite the funk just a little bit ago. I had lost my mojo and was so blah for few weeks. My friend {Crystal} helped get me out of it with a challenge to makeover a t shirt! This was such a fun challenge! I was so excited to coordinate with Crystal on this! It really helped spark my creativity, it helped me get my mojo back!

I love how it turned out! Flared waist, flared sleeves, shirring, pleats, color contrast, yay! I was inspired by the colors of fall, I can't wait for it to get a little cooler!

I also model part time. True story! Ok...not a true story. You wanna make one? You will need:

• T shirt a size or two larger than what you normally wear
• Scissors 
• Disappearing ink pen, mark be gone pen
• Rotary cutter/mat (not necessary, but will be helpful when cutting hems off!)
• Extra wide bias tape, four yards. I used a three yard pack and I was one inch short! (NOTE: ribbing would have probably been better here, but I didn't have any)
• Elastic thread
• Ball point needle for sewing with knits
• Sewing stuff: machine, matching thread, extra needles, all that stuff. 

And just as a note, I used 1/2" seams for this whole project unless otherwise noted.

Start with a t shirt a size or two larger than the size you wear to give you a little wiggle room and more fabric to work with.This is just a plain old brown t shirt from Jo-ann, got it on sale! (Still on sale, you can buy it {here})

Take that shirt that fits and turn it right side out. Shove the sleeves in and lay it directly centered on your t shirt. Using a fabric marking pen, trace around your shirt with a 5/8ish inch or so for seam allowance. I decided to flare out the bottom of the shirt, and make it a little more flowy.

Cut it out! Fold it in half before cutting to ensure that both sides are even. (It's much more flared I just couldn't get it all in the picture)

Pin and sew up the sides (right sides together!) using a zig zag stitch so the fabric can still stretch. Don't sew through the arm holes, unless you want to go for the straight jacket type look.

Next, sleeves. I used the original sleeve because I wanted it to flare out slightly too. To make it fit, I ruffled it a bit. To do this, run the sleeve through the sewing machine using the longest straight stitch possible and 1/4" seam allowance, leaving long threads. Then, gently pull the bobbin thread, and it'll start to gather! Ruffle it up until the sleeve is the same size as the arm hole.

Pin the sleeve on, right sides together, and sew. I like to double stitch my sleeves, since they tend to get pulled on a lot. Sleeves: good! Collar: not so much. Had to get rid of that t shirty collar.

Collar, meet scissors! I cut right under the original ribbing.

I added binding around the collar, to help it lay more flat. It may look funny in the back...that's because I was literally 1 inch short of binding! I however, am too stubborn to let it fly, so I created one tiny little pleat in the back to make up that extra inch.

See? One little pleat. Nothing fancy, but it did the job! And added a little bit extra interest. Ignore the terrible binding job. My getting way too long hair will hide it.

I also added binding to the bottom! I am lazy and I didn't feel like hemming one single thing. :D

When I thought I was done, I realized that something was missing. I thought about it a little, and then decided to add a bit of shirring right under the bust!

I had never successfully executed shirring, so this was rather exciting! I followed {this} awesome tutorial to get it right. I loved it, I can't wait to use this technique again!

Professional model. I tell ya. 

If this was confusing at all check out {this} t shirt redo I did last winter. It covers everything much more thoroughly. I was a little lazy and didn't go over it as much in depth this time around since it's very similar. 

Linking up {here}