Made By Lex

Who needs a pretty new dress?
Let’s get started with an easy tutorial with things you probably have laying around.
I started with an old T-shirt and a yard of coordinating fabric. Originally I was going to use an old men’s shirt for the skirt part, but this fabric matched too well to not use it.

Find your natural waist line and cut the shirt at that point. Save the scraps!

Then I cut out a few more scraps. I cut out a piece from my skirt fabric and a piece of coordinating cream chiffon.

Fold them in half and ruffle them.

Now, I knew that on this T shirt adding a lot of detail would weight it down a lot. So I added a piece of lightweight interfacing to the inside of the shirt. Read more »

If you’re like me, you have quite a few of those shirts laying around that aren’t really nice enough to wear out of the house anymore. I had quite a few and was wondering what to do with them.. Then I remembered that my favorite lounging shirt was this one that I had that is sort of slouchy and hangs off the shoulder. It makes me feel feminine, dare I say, a tad sexy?? So I thought to myself, ‘why not turn these yucky old tees in to something that will make me feel the way that shirt does?’

So journey along with me into an easy tutorial to durn drab into fabulous! Here’s the shirt I’m starting with. One of your old hubby’s t’s would work great, too.
Cut the neckline out. I do it a little higher in the back, a little lower in thr front. You can measure your shoulders to see the width you want it. You could be done here. But I’m making this one extra special!

I cut my sleeves so they would be 3/4 length.

Then I took some leftover sleeve parts and made little strips about 6 inches long. I just folded them in the center and stitched them closed. We’re going to make sleeve pick ups!

Put th epick up in the sleeve and figure out how high you want it to pick up.

Fold the other end up and pin in place. Then stitch it.

Now for a dainty extra detail. I saw somehting like this on Grossgrain recently so this flower is based off of one of hers. I used a similar colored stretch silk that I used in the Stillwater top. Cut out circles, about 10 for each flower.

Using a thread and needle, fold in half and string them through.

Here’s how it will look after you put them all on.

I didn’t want to worry about usinf fray check on all these every time I have to wash the shirt, so I wanted to set mine on a seperate pin so I could remove them before washing them. I cut out a small circle of felt. The just stitch the flower on.

I added a small pearl in the middle of mine.

Then glue on pins to the backside.

Aren’t they just lovely??
Pin them on the top of the pick up.

And here’s your cozy, feminine new shirt.
I love the extra detail at the sleeves.

It felt good to turn something so pajama-ish into something still equally cozy, but much more attractive.

Because being a mom has a way of taking that out of the daily, ordinary life. And its nice to find tiny ways to put a touch of femininity back in somewhere.

Here is an order that I did the other day that is based off of of THIS tutorial.

I love love love these colors together!

It’s so soft and feminine.A closeup of the flower.

A bunchy, gathered riboned neckline.

I have some really cool new couture t shirts that I’ve made for my sisters for Christmas. They are something totally different than I’ve ever done and I’m going to put some in my shop when business slows down. I can’t wait to show them to you!