T-Shirt Recycling

Ruffles are on everything this spring.  It seems like every major fashion designer has gone ruffle-crazy.  This is good because I love girly clothes, but bad because I covet every ruffled cardigan I see. 

Guess what?

I found a solution that's much easier on the ol' bank account.

Step 1: Find an old t-shirt.  This one has been in the back of my closet for a couple of years.  I rarely wore it because it just didn't fit quite right.

Step 2: I forgot to take pictures of this step - sorry!  Neatly cut off the bottom hem.  Then cut off the bottom 6 inches of your shirt.  Cut the 6 inch piece in half, and in half again, so you have 4 strips that are 1.5 inches wide.  Cut one side seam of each so they are flat pieces, not a tube. 

Step 3: line up the shoulder and edge seams of your shirt, with the front centered.  Draw a curved line from the bottom up to the collar.  Cut on this line, totally removing the collar and opening up the front.

Step 4: Lay out your shirt and make sure it's symetrical.  Trim more if necessary.

Step 5: Sew 3 of the 1.5" strips together, forming a large circle.  If you have a serger, run one edge of this through and hold back while you feed it through so it makes a ruffle.  You can also do this with a regular sewing machine on a zig-zag stitch over the edge.  I only had two cones of red thread for the serger, so I put black through the needles.  It made a cool unplanned accent with the black stripe. 

Step 6:  Pin the ruffle around your shirt, right sides together and raw edges aligning.   Sew around the whole thing with a 1/4" seam allowance.  (Adjust if necessary: if your shirt is larger than the ruffled piece, trim a bit more off the curved front.  If the ruffle is too long, ease it in or shorten it a bit.)

 Step 7:  Topstitch 1/8" from where the ruffle meets the shirt, making sure to catch the raw edges on the backside.  This will keep the ruffle from folding back as well as keeping the raw edges flat.

 

Step 8: Cut the remaining 1.5" strip in half, and sew the short edges together making two small circles.  Ruffle one edge of the circles as you did for the large ruffle.  Cut the hemmed part off the two sleeves, attach the small ruffled circles right sides together, sew, and topstitch as you did before.

Step 9: The perfect sundress topper!  You could add a button or hook to the front if you want.  I can't decide if I should use a black or red button on mine.

 If you make one one of these I would love to see.  Click the email me link at left and send a picture!