Thursday, April 8, 2010

onto something

I bought a pack of men's white t-shirts the other day and I'm refashioning my way through them. I'm determined to never have to buy a t-shirt again. I've got ideas for shirts that are literally keeping me up at night (nerd alert). And then during the day I try to steal away a few minutes here and there to sit down at the sewing machine and sew on a sleeve or add some kind of fun detail. But, without fail, within minutes there is a little boy running in to pull me back to reality. They're good at that.

More hours in the day please. Or rather, more hours in the night. After bedtime.

Anyways, here's my latest.

Before: (blegh)




After:


I'm giddy in love with this shirt. While I was finishing the neckline the fabric kept bunching and moving and I was freaking out thinking it was ruined, but I just kept sewing hoping for the best. Then when I finished I didn't even look at it, I just put it on and ran to the mirror. The places where it bunched a little make it quirky and a little wonky which makes me love it even more.



The gathers under the trim are intentional, but the slight gathers on the trim are just me not taking the time to pin like crazy. Next time - pin like crazy. I know that it's not perfect (at all). And I probably won't be able to duplicate it. That's what happens when you start cutting and sewing and hoping it all works out in the end. But in the above picture it looks extra rough since I've not taken it off in the last two days and Max wiped his chocolate milk face all over it before I put him to bed tonight (I'm in love with that kid).

I have another shirt already in the works that I'm pretty excited about. It's fancy. :) Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in the next few days and share it.

In other news, it made us very happy to see Desmond, Penny, Charlie and Faraday this week. Yes indeed.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, me too!! I think I'm in love with Desmond. or Charlie. I'd take either ;)

Anonymous said...

Found you through "Spring Top Week."

Are you planning to dye them too?

Great creativity!
a fellow sewist, also fed up with T-shirts in the store

Kristin, Scott, Emily and Eric said...

Tutorial??? Please???

Anonymous said...

I love this! You are not a nerd for thinking of new ideas on how to refashion mens t shirts. You are super creative and I love these posts. Give us more. :):)

MaryPosa said...

Oh Katie.

A. You make me want to learn to sew for reals. I am 65% of the way to my first sewing machine.

B. Will you still love me and escape for a weekend with me if we don't move?

C. That episode had pretty much everything that I love about LOST. Wanna know my 2 favorite parts? The Macutcheon, and the part where Faraday said he saw Charlotte EATING A CHOCOLATE BAR. Love.love.love lost. and love.love.love you.

OUR HOUSE said...

Impressive much. Okay, Mrs. Refashion, I have a T-shirt challenge for you. I have NO IDEA how you would even go about doing this, but I'm dying to know if you could pull it off. Here's the link (it'll show you a black one, but click on the coral or periwinkle color to see the detail better). http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?subCategoryId=&id=013119&catId=CLOTHES-TWIST&pushId=CLOTHES-TWIST&popId=CLOTHES&sortProperties=&navCount=75&navAction=top&fromCategoryPage=true&selectedProductSize=&selectedProductSize1=&color=001&colorName=BLACK&isSubcategory=&isProduct=true&isBigImage=&templateType=