...upcycled T-shirt

Todays Waste Less Live More week challenge is Value It. This was an easy one for me. T-shirts.

We have a couple of T-shirt issues in our house. A good example of two problems making a solution (for one of us at least).  I realised recently that I had no T-shirts without holes in them. Quite serious holes. Now in one respect this is fine, the chickens don't mind my holey T-shirts and gardening chic kind of demands a few holes, right? But I do occasionally leave the house and it is occasionally nice to have clothes without holes. I went out and bought a new T-shirt and promptly ripped a hole in it on the chicken run. Current budgeting dictates this cannot continue so, new approach needed...

At the same time piling up in my sewing corner are a stack of Dans not very old T-shirts. He is quite tall and broad shouldered hence after about 20 washes a fair number of T-shirts are already too short and look like he has grown out of them.  The upside to this T-shirt tragedy is that there is enough fabric In Dan's tshirts to make new clothes for me and he has worn the fabric in so it is nice and soft. Super!

So this is todays wardrobe rework. Dans top to my top.

1) Cut off the neck to make a new neck line. I used one of my fave tops as a pattern.

2) Cut the cuffs off & take a slice out of the arm to make them the right length. Sew the cuffs back on.

3) Cut the bottom hem off, below the seam stitching to make a lengthy piece of binding for the neck. 

4) Cut the stitching off left after cutting the bottom hem off and rehem the bottom edge. I used a blind hem foot on my serger so it has some stretch. Use a zig zag or stretch stitch on a regular machine.

Use the binding made from the bottom edge to bind the neck edge. 

Tips for sewing with stretch fabric-

-Sergers really help, theres no getting round it and they are so fast. I bought a really cheap one and its the best bit of sewing kit I ever bought. So fast and versitile.

-When using a regular sewing machine treat yourself to a walking foot. It stops the fabric puckering up which is a real problem when sewing knits

-Use ball point needles rather than regular sharps. They work much better and make it easier for your machine

-Cutting stretch fabric can be tricky, a cutting wheel is easier than scissors if you have lots to do. Use sharp scissors!