T-shirt Drama

Refashioning a too-big t-shirt is easy; things get a lot tougher when you have shirts that are too small.  I recently cleared out my closet of all the too-short t-shirts that I no longer much like wearing and wanted to do something with them.  I decided that I would try making another color-blocked t-shirt from the various pink/magenta t-shirts, striped this time.

(1) Because the t-shirts were already too short, I needed to make the stripes longer than the shirts.  I cut out and sewed together two strips of each t-shirt to make long strips.

(2) I sewed the long strips together to make 2 pieces of striped fabric.  In doing this, I chose to line up the seams on the different stripes in a specific pattern.

(3) I used another t-shirt as a guide to cut out front and back pieces from the striped fabric and then sewed them together.

(4) I added sleeves made from another white shirt.

(5) I hemmed the neckline.

(6) In the process of preparing to sew the bottom hem, I cut a gouge in the bottom of the shirt.  Damn.

The gouge was toward the bottom of the shirt, but just high enough that I couldn't cut the gouge off and shorten the shirt without making the shirt as unwearably short as the t-shirts from which I made it.  I spent like 2 weeks thinking about how to proceed and considered and rejected many different fixes.  Finally, a couple days ago, I decided to use a classic technique - the decorative patch.

(7) I hemmed the bottom of the shirt.

(8) I put a small patch on the inside of the shirt and sewed it and the gouge together using overlapping zigzag stitches (to keep the fabric from fraying any more).

(9) I cut out a decorative patch and secured it to the shirt over the gouge using fusible web (i.e., a heat-activated sticky stuff that allows you to "glue" one piece of fabric to another).

(10) I hand-appliqued the patch with a whip stitch.

And voila -- I have produced a cute color-blocked t-shirt for a gigantic baby!

When I showed it to Robert and commented on its toddler-esque quality, he said, "I guess you're not wearing that on the first day of school."  And indeed, I am not.  Somehow wearing a cutesy t-shirt does not quite communicate the message I want in that environment.  But I am looking forward to wearing it as casual/lounge/sleep wear.

As for the asymmetrically positioned rabbit -- the kind of odd placement works for me.  Typically, a real baby garment would feature the rabbit patch centered on the chest or belly.  But people, this is a rabbit.

If the rabbit is not loafed...

Or sphinxed...

Or flopped...

But instead is on his feet, you just can't make him stand where you want him to stand.  These rabbits move fast.  Truly, I'm lucky to have this fancy-free rabbit not be just a blur at the bottom of the shirt.