I'm still working on a tutorial for my t-shirt halter (I'm hoping to make a tute that is adaptable to your personal size), but in the meantime I'm leaving you with this fun reFashion!
Yesterday, Gigi was sick (poor thing- hoping she wakes up better today after a good night's sleep) and slept/watched movies a lot, and Brody was his chill little self so I got some sewing in (!!).
I had a pretty grayish strip of fabric that I had saved when I shortened a dress for my sis-in-law (Thanks, Angelina!). I have a hard time throwing away scraps, and I guess it's a good thing!
I scrounged up an old gray tank that had been banished to the drawer, and decided to give it new life with a little ruching and a couple of t-shirt flowers! Read on for photos and the how-to.
First you'll need a strip of knit fabric (cut-off of the bottom of a dress, from a t-shirt, or just purchased).
The width on mine was about 5 inches total and I folded and pressed both ends toward the middle (making sure to overlap them), so that the new width measures about 2.5".
I ended up using two ruffles that each started as a strip 17" in length. I found it a little too hard to gather the ruffle when it was one long piece (my thread broke!).
A good rule of thumb is to make your pre-gathered ruffle one and a half to double the length you want your finished ruffle to cover. For example, my neckline was 21" and my total strip length was about 33" after I sewed the two strips together (that comes later).
Sew a long stitch all the way down the middle (of each if you have 2). I set my machine to the biggest stitch length which is 5.0. You'll want to make sure you have a few inches of thread hanging off on both ends and do not back stitch.
Pull your top thread from both ends (gently- I broke mine once and had to resew it!), moving the gathers towards the middle to make your ruffle. This is a simplified version of the fancy method of ruching {pronounced rooshing}. :)
If you did your ruffle in 2 halves, now sew them together, pressing the seam open. Make sure you push your gathers as close to that seam as you can to try to hide it.
Pin your ruffle to your shirt in the desired place (hopefully you'll have your pins all going the right way unlike me, oopsie). I'm a pretty symmetrical girl so I just did mine from shoulder to shoulder. Sew a straight line down your ruffle over the large gathering stitch. If you want to be extra professional you could rip out the larger stitch later (I skipped that).
After that I decided I needed a little extra somethin' to finish it off. Plus, I had that seam in the middle where I connected my two ruffles that I wanted to distract from.
I took a t-shirt from my repurposing pile; hopefully you have one you can spare, too. Cut off the hemmed edges of the two sleeves, careful not to cut the thread of the serged hem.
Then sew a large stitch down the middle and slightly gather it (just like in the ruffle, only less gathered).
Twirl it around to make a little rose, handsewing it together as you go (this is not an exact science). You can adjust the gathers as you go to get it to sit how you like.
Hand sew your two roses wherever you like (or make more!). I put two of these just to one side of my center seam. I wanted it to cover the seam (or at least distract from it), but not be right in the middle.
Voilá!
This is such a fun and easy project. It took me most of the day (hence the darker last photo), since I was working in between tending to a sick child and normal baby duties :) but if you have a block of time it would come together in a jiffy. This tank top will now be out of the drawer and proudly hanging in my closet (when I'm not wearing it, that is)!
If you make one, I'd love to see it! Leave a link in the comments or post a photo over on facebook!