DIY: T-Shirt Reform

I really like wearing tee tops since they are comfortable and relatively inexpensive. There are some cute styles out there but I have one problem with them--most are too form fitting. As a young girl, I didn't like tee tops that were form fitting. It probably was because I was a skinny little thing with no curves. These days, I still don't like them form fitting. I still have no curves but am lumpy--it comes with age. Perhaps I should think of them as curves but in all the wrong places and curving the wrong way.

At the beginning of February, Old Navy was having a big clearance sale and I found a 3/4-sleeve tee top for a great deal--only $6.00. I was looking around for 3/4-sleeve to sleep in since it had been a little chilly. The price was right, the style was good since I have a preference for dolman sleeves but it was too form fitting from the waist down. XS fit me well from the under arm up but was really tight otherwise. The S was still form fitting but not as bad but the neckline was too wide. While I debated what to do, I thought up trying to do something since the shirts were so inexpensive. I ended up buying both sizes.

After washing them, I took the size S and pinned the side seams and bottom hem together to make sure that they were even.

 

I then cut a wedge out of the side from hem to under arms.

 

On the XS shirt, I carefully cut off the seam at the stitching line to the under arm seam.

 

 

The wedge cut off of the S shirt is pinned to the XS shirt, which will form a triangular shape from under arm to hem. The trickiest part is making sure that the under arm seams come together. I honestly didn't care too much it if wasn't perfect since this shirt will be used only as a night shirt.

 

 

I used a serging machine to stitch my seams but the tip of wedge under the arms was also handstitched to make sure that it stitched together at that thinnest point.

 

The side seams from the right side of the shirt:

 

 

The completed shirt:

 

 

I'm so glad that it actually worked out well. I like the fit on me and it was actually very easy to do. I just used the original hem and only had to add the two wedge seams, with the main side seam staying intact on the wedge cut out.

 

I wore it during my Las Vegas trip and it was on the last night that we were there that I told my mom what I did with the shirt. She was quite shocked as she had no idea that it was redone. She said that she couldn't tell at all and really liked that I had come up with this idea.

 

I hope that you enjoyed this DIY post. I wanted to take a break from posting only product reviews.

 

*Kat*