a beauty from a beast

every year, each of the messick men get a t-shirt from their grandparents. i guess they are supposed to use it when they are being manly or pumping iron or some other man activity.

however, when i saw this in our stocking this year, i was like, " oh my gosh! a new shirt! i'm so excited!" 

i think it was like a 2XL. just my size :) so i got to deconstructing this bad boy and made it into quite the lady

wanna make one? huh huh huh?

in california, these shirts are everywhere. just find some crew neck t-shirt or steal one from your significant other and let's get down to business!

 you will need

an oversized crew neck

a shirt you own already own and like the fit of

four buttons

thread

 1. lay out a shirt you own and like the fit of and line it up to your shirt.

 2. pin it down 

 3. cut off the excess bottom fabric and save it

 4. cut off the sleeves at the seam and save them

 5. pin the sides and sew!

 6. cut off that nasty crew neck

7. cut down the huge sleeves to match the sleeves on your fitted t-shirt

8. pin your new sleeves and sewwww. then pin and sew them back onto the shirt body. hem the bottom of the shirt and the sleeves if needed.

 9. now onto the collar. muahahaha. i wanted a collar that went all the way around the neckline, so i drafted my own pattern. i found a pretty good tutorial for it here. ( ignore everything except the drafting unless, you want a triple collar) so, draft out your own collar. mine looked like this

make sure to leave a seam allowance. i also made a draft for the back, but i forgot to take a picture. sorry!

10. take that scrap from the sides or the bottom and fold it in half. cut two pieces.

11. to make the back of the collar, just draft a semicircle that is the thickness of the front collar draft. 

 12. sew the pieces right sides together, leaving a part open to flip it inside out. then, taking your two front pieces and your one back piece pin them onto the collar, like from this tutorial. (ignore the fact that i thought i made a peter pan collar....i was young and naive hahaha)

it should look something like this

13. now that the shirt is smaller and the collar is finished and sewn on, onto the placket. the buttons i used are from a shirt my mother-in-law had. thanks ruth!

 14. so to make the placket, just take a scrap piece and turn over the sides to make a rectangle and sew it on

it should look something like this

15. sew on your buttons and.....voila!

sorry for the inside shots, it is pouring outside!

i seriously love these buttons. so flippin cute.

and who would have thought the beast could be turned into a beauty....

so what do you guys think? a successful refashion or what?

so go find a crew neck and show it who is boss!

and have a magnificent monday!!!