Woowee, thanks. I'm gonna try your technique tonight. Lucky for me I've got some shirts (company logos bllllllarg) I wouldn't wear even deconstructed to practice on. Now if I could just find a thrifted Billy Idol tee...

i *heart* billy idol

I bought a beautiful Billy Idol tee-shirt that I rhinestoned and reconstructed into a tank with a gathered front. It turned out quite nice I think, and I only spent like, five bucks on it.

By the way, anyone know how to make a flashdance shirt?

You could gather the shoulder pieces (two "channels" with one string through the entire thing) which would gather or let the shoulder part stay in one piece. Plus this is useable on nearly every part of a shirt (sides, middle, etc).


I bet that's way more confusing then it should be, but I'll try to find a picture of what I mean.

i just made a reconstructed shirt!

I cut off the sleeves and neck. and took in the shoulders a bit so it's more tank top, less muscle shirt. I put a channel-drawstring thing just under where my boobs would be and ran a ribbon through it, so there is what i think is called a princess waist (?) and when you cinch the ribbon the bottom of the shirt does a slight flared a-line thing. i cut slits in the side too. it's cool. I put darts in the side to take up some of the sag that happended when i took off the sleeves, but they're a bit puckery so I think I'm going to have to get some help on those...

robotgirl - 'empire line'

hee hee yeah! empire waist. i knew it has something to do with royalty. :) thanks

THANK YOU ldygodiva! When I got my sewing machine for Xmas, I had newbie dreams of "I'm going to alter all of my t-shirts so I can actually wear 'em!" but haven't been able to figure out how until now. Thanks for the *very* clear instructions! Yay! Wearable concert tees, here I come!

he he....thanx a bundle

now i may be able 2 wear my formerly HUGE shirt...
WEEEEEEEEEEe

mouse

I "HEART" reconstructed t-shirts!!!!
that's all

tata!
vampy

ooh, i did one a couple of weeks ago that i lurve now.

basic tee, not stretchy or anything, cut off the neck, bottom hem, and an inch or so off the sleeves. slit sleeves from neckline to sleeve end, parallel to sleeve end, each slit about 1/2 to 1/4 of an inch apart. thread ribbon, leather cord, funky material, or whatever through the slits, and pull to gather. knot or bow the ends so they hang over shoulder.

whoo hoo! and you can change the ribbon/cord/etc. whenever you want!

ooh, i want to make an empire line tank top! did you sew the 'channel' for the ribbon onto the outside of the shirt?

the other idea just posted involving slitting the sleeves confused me. sorta. wait, i think i get it now that i reread it. sorta. i want to see a picture though! i think i'm a way too visual person to understand it entirely.

yay, now i'm inspired to maybe do something with the 3 t-shirts that have been sitting on my sewing desk awaiting reconstruction. thanks!

I just made my first reconstructed t-shirt! Yippee. I recently moved cross country so I only have one crappy t-shirt (ok, I have many crappy shirts but unfortunately they are my wardrobe.. this was the only crappy true-t huge shirt).

What I did: Cut the neck, the bottom, and the sleeves at the seams. Since it was super wide and the sleeves were big, i folded the fabric inward ---(kind of like an M shape... sewing the two points of the M together with the excess fabric inside-- so that you can see that I sewed it-- kind of wonky, but its obvious that I made it and its not supposed to be ultra chic) to sort of dart the sleeves -- and since i cut it at the sleeve seam, the extra width from the shoulders acts as a pesudo cap sleeve. Anyway, I left all of the other cuts that i made (besides the side seams) raw, because all I have is one needle and some white thread. It was so easy that I want one of those tiny-tailor sergers so I can do it some more (does anyone have one of them? are they decent?). Plus, it is SOOOOO hot in new york right now, so the shirt is nice and airy, but not in a 3 times to big for me way. YAY!

Are there any sites with images/photos/patterns for reconstructing t-shirts?
English is not my native language and I'm having a hard time understanding your instructions :)

I've already searched in Google but didn't find anything.

Thank you!

my native language *is* English, and I only understood about half of the explanations :)

basically, to make a huge shirt smaller:
- cut it apart at the side and sleeve seams
- lay a shirt that fits over it and cut new arm holes and sides (but not too small)
- to shorten the sleeves, don't cut the hem. cut a few inches off at the shoulder, following the round shape
- sew the sleeves back on to the arm hole
- sew up the side seams to the armpit, and continue all the way down the sleeve (the same way you would do if you were making a shirt from scratch).
- to shorten the shirt, I agree with the cut and zig-zag advice. I've tried straight stitch, stretching while doing straight stitch, serging, and stretch stitch, but all of them end up bunching or ripping or both. zig-zag the edge, or else just leave it. it might roll-up depending on the shirt, but it won't fray.


for reconstructing, I like simple stuff like cutting off the sleeves, cutting off the neckband and making a v-neck or slit.

other concepts basically involve:
- cutting part of the shirt off (one sleeve, asymmetrical hem, ...)
- cutting slits (front of neck, middle of sleeve, at the hem)
- taking the shirt apart then sewing it back together at a weird angle or with parts of the seams bunched.
- making fringe -- along the hem or the sleeve hem, make a bunch of cuts perpendicular to the hem, about half an inch apart. cutting off the hem first is a good idea.
- slashes (or whatever you want to call them) are the same, but don't cut off the hem, and cut starting and inch or so from the edge. I've seen this mostly on the ass of underwear, but I think one of the confusing instructions was saying to make vertical slashes from shoulders to boobs.
- bunching: you could make a casing and string ribbon through it, like a few people have mentioned, or ...
- take some thread, tie a knot in the end, baste along where you want the bunching, pull the thread until the bunching is tight enough and evenly arranged. sew the bunched fabric over top of (or next to) the basting.

sorry if this was overly long.

preloved is a store in Toronto that makes this sort of thing. there are pictures on their website, but not instructional ones. www.preloved.ca

I don't know if this quite helps, but I came across a site with a lot of interesting ideas for reconstructing tee shirts.
>http://www.pieceaconviction.com/

In the ">for people with" section there are a lot of things you could do to a shirt to alter it a bit-- like adding yarn, sewing on felt... it is nicer than it sounds. Or I could have bad taste.

Anyway, hope this is a bit helpful.

I made my first re-constructed t!!!! (i've resized shirts before, but never fully redone them.)

It was a slightly stretchy button up the fron white t that fit nicely, but the collar just reminded me too much of school uniform shirts. So I used a shirt I already own as a guide and made is square necked (I don't remember what it's called ) and then took some burgundy ribbon I had left over from a different project and wove it through slits I'd cut in the sides, so it looks as though instead of being sewn together, the bottom of the sides are held togeter with the ribbon. It's so awesome~

I also went threw my closet and got out shirts that I never wore because they didn't fit quite right or were too plain, and I found some intresting embelishments hanging around includeing Mardi Gra beads!!
*happy dance*

I've been seeing a lot of these at urban outfitter lately and keep not getting around to making some. One kool idea were these large, t-shirts w'company logos and the like, and they tooka off the sleeves and sewed on flutter sleeves out of a pretty fabric. And then at the bottom, also with the flutter sleeve fabric they sewed on a sort of sash that was attached all the way around except for one side, where it tied. Hope that wasn't too confusing. Also, there have lately been lots of tees that look like two halves of tottally different teeshirts sewen together. they're all kool esspecially cuz the 2 origional shirts had vintage prints.

Catty2, thanks for the info! I think I got it :) (we'll see when I'm in front of the sewing machine, heh).
And thank you and everybody for the extra ideas. This board rules!

Back to lurking mode,

Nell

hi everyone! this is my first post. i just discovered this site a few days ago and i'm so excited about it. i came specifically looking for reconstructed t-shirt ideas (but found so much more) so thanks to everyone for sharing! anyone have any more ideas and/or pictures? i'd really love to see how your shirts turned out.

~heather

Would anyone know how to reconstruct regular t-shirts into spaghetti straps? I saw these nifty dragon-shirts at mervyns that I want, but they are all great big boy shirts. Any ideas?

man i wish i had a scanner. cosmogirl is a great mag cause they have a diy section and they showed how to do this. if you can get some old issues you should find tons of ideas.

There's a braided strap technique. For this you cut a big scoop neck in the front and back of the shirt & cut off the sleeves. Then detach the straps at the back and cut each into 3 strands. Braid them and sew them to the back again. Sew up all the rough edges that might ravel end you're done. Sorry these directions aren't very good but it's pretty easy.

Yeah, they sell a shirt at Abercrombie with the braided straps for like 20 dollars, and everytime i see it im like, hey, i could make that!

Fine members of Glitterati-

would some of you volunteer to write an article about this? (hint, hint Catty2). if you have samples of kustom t-shirts would you email them to me? this would make such a great article! i think it needs instructional elements. so email me editors@getcrafty.com

tsia
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