Tee Shirt Surgery

  A friend of mine brought me a cute tee shirt fom Aruba recently. Unfortunately, it was way too small. It sat in my closet for a while until I figured out what to do with it. I didn't want to just give it away to the thrift store, especially since it travelled all the way from Aruba! I finally decided to add some panels to the sides and see if that would help it fit better. I'll show you how I did it. Here is the before picture.

  The picture doesn't do it justice. It is a really bright, almost neon coral color. The first thing I did was crochet a panel to go in the sides. I used worsted weight yarn and a size J crochet hook. I made a sort of triangle shape using a half double crochet stitch that came out to be about 16.5 inches long and about 5 inches at the widest part. You can use a piece of lace or another kind of fabric if you like. Just cut your panel to be the length of the shirt.

  Then cut the side of the tee shirt, staying as close as possible to the seam. As you can see in the picture, I've already done one side.

  Fold the sides of the tee shirt in so you have the raw part hidden on the inside. Press the fold. This will make it easier to sew.

  Place the panel inside the shirt where you want it then match up one corner of the cut tee to a corner of the panel. It's ok if your tee shirt doesn't match the exact shape of your panel. You can't see the overlap on the inside anyway. If you plan to do your final sewing with a machine, loosely hand sew the tee shirt to the panel using a contrasting thread. (This is also called basting if you didn't know the sewing term.) If you plan to hand sew, then use a thread that matches your tee shirt.

  Here are my basted panels on the shirt. It already looks like I'll be able to breath in it! I love the color contrast too. If you're happy with it, sew it up with your machine if you haven't done that yet and remove your baste stitches.

Lacy Shirt

  This was a really quick work up. I found the pattern on Ravelry. You can find it on Lion Brand's website, it's called Crochet Bronze Beauty Top. The original pattern has long sleeves, but I think I will keep it just like this. I want to make one in another multicolored yarn with the sleeves.

  This pattern didn't give me any problems, I just followed along and everything fell into the right places. It starts off with a foundation single crochet which they call a base ch/sc. The wording through me off a little, but once I realized it was just a foundation sc, it was fine. If you don't know that stitch, they have an explanation in the pattern stitches section to tell you exactly how to do it. Piece of cake! Let me know if you try this pattern.

Garment in the making

  I found my next crochet garment in Interweave Crochet Magazine's summer issue. It's called Lauren Sweater by Mimi Alelis. I actually started this garment a few months ago but set it down for a while because I realized that it was turning out too big for me. I was following the pattern for the medium size. I also think my gauge might be off a bit because I am substituting the yarn with a sport weight yarn. I dreaded frogging the whole thing, I hate to feel like my time and energy was wasted, so I just didn't do anything for a long time. Finally, I took it apart and started over. Well, not completely over, but I took it out until the ribbing was short enough to make the smaller size. (The pattern starts with the bottom ribbing.) It's better than doing nothing and I really want to make this sweater. So I will post pics and updates as I go along.

Refashioned Army Shirt

  I took one of my old Army tee shirts and made a cute tank for Isabel. She's actually wearing this in my last post. We had ourselves a little photo shoot and just got everything photographed.
  This shirt was simple. First I cut the sleeves off, a few snips across the top to square it off, then fold it over and sew to make a casing for the straps. I cut the hem off of the bottom to use for the straps. Thread through and tie together. I cut a slit on each side at the bottom and tied the ends together to make it a little more fitted.

Refashion

   Ok, don't laugh at my amateur sewing job.  I am well aware that I have tons of learning to do in that department. I think it turned out way better in my mind. I should probably take a class sometime.Well, on to the project.

  I took this thrift store shirt and made some alterations. 

First I chopped off the sleeves and made the shirt a little more fitted. 

Then I added crochet, of course. This is an applique that I wrote about in another blog post. I just pinned it where I liked then hand sewed it in place. 

I carefully cut out the fabric from behind the crochet.

This shirt is for my daughter, so instead of leaving the open back, I added a contrasting color to the inside. Conveniently, I had a sample swatch of stretch cotton jersey in the exact size that I needed. Not the prettiest stitches, but they do the job. I had to make sure to stay behind the crochet so the stitches weren't visible on the other side. 

And the final piece. 

Boot Fringe

  My brother asked me to make him some fringe for his boots to complete his new costume. If you didn't know, he is a professional wrestler. Not WWE, but CCW, Classic Championship Wrestling, an independent wrestling federation. If you've ever watched wrestling on TV, you know that every wrestler has some kind of gimmick and a cool costume. My bro's name is  Lobo, formally known as Lobo Loco. His colors are orange and black.

  These are the boot fringe that I whipped up for him. They are made from tee shirts from the thrift store. Unfortunately I only have pictures of the final piece, but I can give you an idea of what I did. If you really want to see step by step, just leave a comment and I'll be happy to make a tutorial for it. I cut two rectangles from one orange and one black tee, about 18 by 15 inches. I made sure to keep t-shirt's bottom seam intact. Then I used a rotary cutter to make my strips, about half an inch wide, but not cutting all the way up. Tug on the strips to make them roll up a bit. I sewed the black rectangle on top of the orange at the top, added elastic and hand sewed the circle closed for each. When that was all done I trimmed the strips at the bottom so they were all even. It was pretty easy. I'll update with a pic the next time Lobo gets his whole costume on. The fringe will start at the top of his boot to about his ankle. I had to go off of the measurements he gave me since we live in different states.

Tee Shirt Remixed

  I tried another pattern from Erika and Monika Simmons called Remix T-Shirt Sleeves. This pattern is published in their book called  "Double Stitch: Designs For The Crochet Fashionista." It is also free and can be found here. Don't you love free? You know I do!

So I took this plain gray tee shirt:

Then added the Remixed Sleeves:

The final piece:

Halter Top

  If you've been following my blog for a while you might remember my unfinished halter top. Here's a pic if you haven't seen it.

  I finally picked it up and decided to work on it again. I wanted to undo the bottom part because I thought it was a little too ruffly. I think I'll keep it as it is and make it into a dress instead of a shirt. Hopefully it will come out the way I imagine it in my head.
  So here's what I'm working with so far:

  Anyone have any suggestions? Is it too ruffly? Should I keep going? What do you think? Thanks for any input.

V-Topper Completed

  My V Topper is complete! The pattern was very easy to follow and well written. If you'd like to try it, you can find the free pattern here. I haven't blocked the sweater yet, so I think it will look better after I do that. The bottom kind of rolls up a bit, so blocking will eleminate that. The only thing I might do different next time is to make the sleeves a little longer and maybe not as wide. So here is the final product and a sneak peek at the 3d wall art in my new craft room. (The room is still not done yet.)