BRILLIANT!

I am a blue jean and t-shirt type of girl.  Since moving to Haiti my daily attire now consists of skirts, skirts, and more skirts!  I do not necessarily mind this style of dress.  It is quite comfortable and I love all my fun colored skirts.  I will admit though there are certain days where nothing sounds better to me than getting to put on a pair of blue jeans and a T-SHIRT!  Over the past few months I have not been wearing many t-shirts because they simply make me feel sloppy.  Wearing a flowing cotton skirt with a lose fitted t-shirt makes me not feel "put together"

I was working through my need to say "Au-revoir" to my t-shirts when I discovered the most brilliant beyond brilliant solution!  I did not come up with this BRILLIANT idea, but I am more than willing to reap the benefits.  I was searching Pinterest one afternoon and discovered a post that said, "T-Shirt surgery:  How to make a shirt fit."  I was so excited at the discovery!

Thursday mornings from 9-12 I work with the ladies at church on the jewelry project.  I came home from our time together still in a "crafty" mood and decided my T-Shirt surgery was not going to be able to wait for the weekend.  So out popped the sewing machine and it was time to operate!  (Yes, you should be impressed, I have began to learn to sew since moving to Haiti.  Straight lines are my forte.)

 I began by choosing one of my favorite T-Shirts.  I was a huge fan of the band Relient K throughout middle school & high school.  I have worn this green t-shirt on a regular basis since my freshman year of high school.  I took a fitted tee that I wear today to use as my pattern.

 I placed my fitted tee on top of my t-shirt.  I turned both shirts inside out.  After making sure the shoulders were in line I used clothes pins to hold the two shirts together.  I then took a dry erase marker and simply traced the pattern of the fitted tee onto my t-shirt.  (Another reason why it's necessary to turn the t-shirts inside out.)  


After tracing the pattern of the shirt I took pins and placed them along the outline to hold the t-shirt together when sewing took place.

The next step is simple, sew your outline to receive the new shape of your t-shirt.  True confession:  I began by sewing the bottom of my shirt first.  Half way through sewing the bottom I realized, DUH, this part does NOT need to be stitched together :)

 I tried my shirt on while it was still inside out to see if I liked the fit.  I must say, i think the winged t-shirt look could catch on.  Now that the size was how I wanted it, I simply cut off the "wings" and turned the shirt right side out.

 Here's the finished product of my very own "fitted tee"  I was so excited to see that it actually worked!  I've got quite a few memorable t-shirts I want to give a little bit of shape to.  I left my sewing machine out so I can do some more renovations this weekend.