I Didn't Mean To Make This: Jack Skellington Refashion Tee

I totally did not intend for this recon shirt to come out the way it did.  Originally, it was supposed to be a simple resizing recon.  The original shirt was given to me by one of my best friends years ago and I wore the heck out of it.  Color fading, a hole in the shirt and a stain is an indication of how much I love shirt.  However, over time, I wore it less and less because I didn't like how short it had become or how boxy it was (although I still wore it occasionally).

My plan was to take in the sides and sleeves and to lengthen it.  Well, I did all I had planned except the sleeves ended up being too tight so I ended up taking out the sleeves but still wasn't happy with it.  I wanted to make something different from what I normally make.  So I went back to my computer to do some research on how to add sleeves.  Like zippers, adding in made-from-scratch sleeves intimidated me.  But intimidate no more.  Like putting in zippers, once i got the hang of it, it was easy peasy.   In fact, putting in sleeves is a lot easier than putting in a zipper. 

This simple recon ended up taking a few hours because of the sleeves and the collar hem.  Not to mention, the striped fabric was being ornery.  In the end, I won.  I shall now be wearing this shirt until the sleeves fall out.

Here are some more pics...

 

This shows how boxy and short the original shirt was.

T-Shirt Refashion: From Boxy Tee to Fitted Dolman Style

 

I've been wanting to refashion some boxy t-shirts for a while but never found a style that I really liked.  That is until I saw this tutorial on how to make a dolman sleeve style shirt from scratch.  Granted, I never thought much about dolman sleeves, in fact, I didn't think about them because they never really appealed to me.  But for whatever reason, the Make It & Love It tutorial gave me inspiration so I looked around on the internet to see if I could find a tutorial to make one from an existing shirt.  Enter Trash to Couture (I love her!).  When I saw her tutorial the gears in my  head started turning.  Using the Trash to Couture tutorial as a base, I cut and sewed my sleeves as she instructed.  But instead of ruching the sides, I added a banded bottom (inspired by the Make it & Love It tute) instead. I also cut the collar off a little wider to give it more of a boatneck and left it unhemmed cause I like that look.

The 15 year old BP shirt that I can now wear again..

The banded bottom.