This project was inspired by a pile of t-shirt scraps leftover from a neighbor's quilting project. The shirts all had the front or back cut out, but they weren't cut very carefully so there were a lot of damaged sleeves, necklines, and holes.
I knew right away that I wanted to try piecing them together to make a new shirt! I don't have much experience with knits or t-shirt making but I wanted the challenge! Hopefully you can use my process to try and save your own t-shirts from landfill!
I was partly inspired by this shirt on the Fixing Fashion Project, but I specifically wanted to make something that would be figure flattering.
I feel like pieced garments often have a tendency not be especially flattering (esp. with square piecing) but they also have that upcycled look as opposed to something you may buy from the store. I love upcycling in all its forms but I prefer a more polished look if I can get it!
If you want to make a shirt similar to mine here's what you'll need!
Supplies
T-shirt material, as scraps or whole shirts (easier if shirts are all roughly same size/length)
Materials for template making (I used cereal boxes)
A T- shirt that fits well to use as template (I used a couple!)
A sewing machine w/ zig zag stitch (overlock stitch is preferred) or a serger/overlocker
A stretch needle
Optional: a twin needle
Like I said earlier, I haven't made many shirts pieced or otherwise (let alone in knit!) so I wasn't really sure how I wanted to tackle this project. I sketched a few ideas for shapes I'd want to use to piece together and decided that the long triangles arranged as a sunburst would be really flattering for my shape.
I made a long triangle template that I could use to cut up my material consistently. I decided on the measurements mostly based on the length of the shirts I had available and made it about 4 in wide so that I could make the most use of the fabric I had. With this, I cut out lots of triangles!
Then I started playing with the layout of my pieces by overlaying them on the shirt that fits me well so I had an idea of how to sew them. This also helped me to avoid wasting fabric by sewing it in a way that wouldn't be used in the pattern.
In some areas near the shoulders I needed to add extra material for it to be long enough. I did that by cutting extra matching fabric and adding it to the length of my triangle after tracing the rough measurements of the piece I needed based on the overlay and sewing it to the end of the triangle.
Once I had a layout I liked, I started sewing up the triangles!
A quick word on sewing with knits
Make sure you have a stretch/ballpoint needle installed!
I sewed this project mostly with an overlock stitch on my machine and found that it let the material stretch best while looking like a store bought seam. If you don't have a serger or an overlock stitch you can still use your zigzag stitch!
You can follow the same process for the back of the shirt if your triangles are long enough.
Mine weren't long enough because the neckline is higher at the back of the shirt than the front! This project sat for a MONTH while I stewed about how to solve this issue!
Thankfully, one of the shirts I cut up had a yoke shape intact! By placing this as the top of my sun burst shape I'm able to maintain the flattering shape too! Just sew this to your sunburst, right sides together and you're good to go!
Once you have a front and back section of piece material, I sewed up the shoulder seams after marking the location with pins based on my good fitting shirt. Then you can mark with pins where the line of your template shirt falls, and sew just outside the pins, leaving a space for the arm holes.
Now it's time for sleeves! I was able to salvage some whole sleeves from my shredded shirts but only one sleeve per shirt was salvageable! I played around with the idea of having two different colored sleeves but decided to have 2 navy blue sleeves.
Almost the same color but unfortunately not the same size or a shape/style that I want! I pulled out a few t-shirts that I like the sleeves on and traced them to make templates.
To do this, you have your shirt folded in half, trace the front curve by carefully lifting up the fabric and marking your paper. Usually, you need to trace both the front and back curve but because this is a knit fabric (more forgiving) and I was hoping to make a reversible shirt I just cut my templates on the fold.
Depending on the template you make, you might need to trim the underarm seam and re-sew it! I traced 2 shirt sleeves that I like the fit of before deciding, you can see how different they look from each other but also from the standard unisex sleeves that I cut off! Be sure to add some seam allowance to your template! I arranged my templates so I could reuse the hemmed opening of the sleeves!
Before adding the sleeves, you need to trim your arm hole to the correct size and shape. Similar to how I made the sleeve template, I take my shirt that fits and trace the arm hole seam line onto my shirt. Before trimming, I measure the curve length and double it. This measurement needs to match the sleeve opening, or be very close! If they don't quite match you can make it larger smaller by slightly adjusting the curve.
Now you're ready to set in your sleeves! I do this by pinning the center of my sleeve top to the center shoulder seam and pinning the underarm seam to where the front and back meet. I used my clips to space out the fabric between those two points evenly and sewed it up!
Full disclosure- I didn't get my armhole shapes the way I wanted them the first go around! Above are pictures of the first sleeve attempt, the shoulder seam was too long! I corrected it by unpicking the top half of the sleeve and setting it in closer to the neckline so my shoulders would look slimmer.
Try on your shirt and make any adjustments to the fit, you're almost done! Now is a good time to decide what kind of neckline you want at the front and back. I went for a scoop in the front and a crew in the back. V-necks are a little more challenging to get the binding done correctly!
I was a little intimidated by the neck binding because I didn't have a long enough piece of t-shirt ribbing from one fabric to use. I decided to try piecing it together to match the sunburst! I carefully unpicked the neck bindings from my shirts, making sure to remove all stitching so I could unfold them and give them a good steam iron.
Once they back to laying straight instead of curved, you can unfold them, and sew them right sides together at the short end to make a long piece of neck binding. Measure the neckline opening and make a neck binding loop the same length or a little shorter so it stretches and lays flat when you wear it.
I completely forgot to take enough pictures while I was figuring this out! I highly recommend checking this video that explains neck binding on stretchy shirts if you're having a hard time figuring it out!
Before connecting your binding loop to your final shirt- make sure to practice on scraps to get the look you want and make sure your tension is good! Pin (or clip!) your neck binding around the curve of your shirt with right sides facing. Sew with an overlock stitch. Iron the front of the shirt so the neck binding lays flat facing up. You can stop here if you like!
I decided to top stitch with a twin needle sewing a straight line over the neck binding and t-shirt. If you don't have a twin needle you can sew a zig zag or a stretch straight stitch if your machine has it.
Now you just need to hem! Trim any excess fabric so you have a straight edge, iron up the edge by about 1/2". I used my twin needle so it looks like a store bought shirt but you can use the zig zag or triple stretch stitch.
Now you have a new shirt that's ready to be shown off! I love how comfy this shirt turned out, I might try making another version! I definitely prefer to wear it with the pink as the front, but the blue side is the prettiest to me! Show me what you make by tagging me on Instagram @Sunny_Salvage or Facebook! Follow my Pinterest for other cool upcycling ideas!
Happy Upcycling!
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