Arthur's 1st Birthday Shirt!

 As is my tradition starting with my daughter's 2nd birthday, I make my children birthday t-shirts proudly showing their age.

For Arthur's #1 shirt I made a large 1 sitting in the grass, with some sunshine and friendly bear. The bear has button eyes and a button nose. The grass has a bit of a 3-D effect but you can't really see that in the pictures.

All the parts are made with basic craft felt and sewn on with my machine. I hand sewed the first one I made for my daughter using embroidery floss, but it took forever! Click here if you would like to see my daughter's #2, #3, and #4 birthday shirts.

Happy Birthday Arthur!

In case you are wondering, yes he got the shirt coated in chocolate cake and icing, but it came out of the washing machine sparkly clean. I've never had any problems washing my birthday shirts. The felt holds up nicely.

Avant-Garde Skirt made from Men's Shirt #2--Tutorial!

My last post was a more funky skirt made from a men's shirt, so this time I decided to make a more traditional, yet still unique, skirt from another one of my husband's old shirts. This skirt was made from an XXL short-sleeved khaki button down shirt. Unlike the other skirt I made, this one was made entirely from one shirt, but is similar in that it is super comfortable and wearable. There are a lot of steps, but that doesn't mean it's a difficult project. A lot of the steps are only necessary because you have to be creative with your fabric when you're limited to one shirt. I love these skirts!



 1. Select your shirt. I think this skirt style works best with a solid color, but the choice is yours. I used the chest pockets in this design, so a shirt with chest pockets would be necessary to make it exactly the same, but you can mess around with it to make it work! :-)

 2. Cut off the sleeves and collar. Don't throw away these items though--you'll use them later.

 3. Cut the shirt in half right below the chest pockets. This is the body of your skirt.

4. Cut the front from the back of the top half of the shirt. Then cut a rectangle from each half of the front of the shirt by removing the buttons/buttonholes (leave a little fabric on the edges of your button plackets so you can use them later in step 14), and straightening up the top and outside edges. This picture shows one rectangle cut out and one half still waiting to be cut.

 
5. Cut the back of the shirt as shown in this picture, cutting just below the yoke, then evenly splitting the remainder of the shirt. 

6.  Cut the shoulder seams from the yoke, and then split it in half. This will give you two sections of fabric. Straighten these out into rectangles as best as you can. The outside of the yoke may be lighter than the inside due to fading, so keep that in mind when deciding which side will face out on your skirt. I chose to put the slightly darker edge outside for the subtle effect it caused.

7. Sew the strips you cut from the yoke to the bottom edges of the pocket rectangles you cut, forming a band consisting of fabric strip-pocket-fabric strip-pocket.

8. Pin this band to the top of the body of your skirt (the bottom half of the shirt). This is where it gets interesting. Depending on the size of shirt, the length of the yoke, etc..., this may fit exactly, or the band may be a bit smaller than your skirt. If so, gather or pleat the skirt to fit. I placed two small pleats on each side under the pockets. You can see these in the side shot of me wearing the skirt at the bottom of this post.

  
9. Sew the band to the skirt. When you lift it up it will look like this. Weird. We'll fill in the gaps though, don't worry!

10. Get the other two strips you cut out of the back of the shirt in step 5. Measure above your hips (or where you want the skirt to sit), and then cut those strips, including seam allowance, to that measurement. Sew them together to form a band. This band will be smaller than the circumference of the skirt. Gather the top of your skirt between the pockets, in front and back, to fit this new band. This picture shows the band already sewn in.

11. Fold down the pockets towards the outside of the skirt to get them out of the way. Pin the band to the skirt, right-sides together (except over the folded down pocket--see illustration).  Sew the band to the top of the skirt once it's gathered to fit. Do not sew this band to the pockets. Skip over them. The band will go behind the pockets.  You could cut down your strips and sew them to the edges of the pocket pieces, or a variety of other ways, but I found my method to be easier.

 12. Flip up the pockets and being careful to fold under the raw edges on each side of them, pin them down to the top band. Top stitch them in place. If your waistband doesn't fit as nicely as you want, tuck darts behind the pockets before you sew them down.

13. You're almost done! Now we have to make a "fly" so you can get this thing on. Cut the skirt open above the existing buttons. The button plackets from the top of the shirt are laying on the skirt in this picture because I'm going to use them in the next step.

14. Get the button plackets you cut off the top halves of the shirt in step 4. Sew them to the raw seams at the top of where the buttons/buttonholes stop on your skirt. Measure these to ensure that the buttons and buttonholes will line up once your done! Then sew them up the remaining raw edge of the skirt.

 It should look like this when you're done.

15. Button the skirt closed, then sew it shut up until wherever you want the fly to start. For me that's about 6"-ish from the top.

16. Now for the waistband facing. You don't have to finish the top edge of your skirt this way, but I think it makes for a much cleaner edge. I cut the bottom seams off the sleeves to get the fabric for this. You'll need a strip as long as the top of your skirt, so you may need to cut some from the rest of the sleeves or the collar and piece it all together to make it work. I like using the sleeve edges because it's already nice and hemmed!

 
17. Sew the facing strip to the top of the skirt, right-sides together, all the way around, from one front opening of the skirt to the other.

18. Fold the facing into the skirt, press, then top stitch all the way around.

19. The finishing touches are to add extra buttons and buttonholes to the top if you are uncomfortable with the distance between the existing buttons, and since my skirt didn't end with a button at the very top, I added a hook and eye there.

Notice the pleats under the side pocket that I mentioned in step 8.

Avant-Garde Skirt made from a Men's Shirt--Tutorial!

I'll admit it--I'm very proud of this skirt. I love it. I wear it often, which is the true test of whether or not you are truly satisfied with something you've made. I made it using a men's XXL short-sleeved shirt, and another men's shirt for the contrasting plaid, although you could use any scrap fabric for that part. If you're skinnier than me, you could probably do this with an XL or L shirt, because I did have some fabric leftover. But bigger is always better when reconstructing shirts because it gives you some room for error and more fabric to work with, which never hurts! This tutorial has a lot of wiggle room because this is an avant-garde project that requires creativity and a bit of filling in the blanks. This is mostly to show you how to maximize what can be done with a shirt, and how I personally transformed it into a skirt. The detailing is up to you. Here is another example of a skirt made from a button-down shirt that you might want to try.

Step 1: Locate the appropriate shirt. For this type of "cargo-ish" skirt, not just any shirt will look right. Try to find one with pocket flaps, in an earthy tone, and if it has little button flap thingies on the shoulders-yay! I'm using an old shirt of my husband's.

Step 2: Cut the shirt in half, below the pockets.

Step 3: Place the "skirt" (the bottom half of the shirt) on yourself or a dress form your size and start pinching. There was a lot of excess fabric in the back, so I chose to make pleats there, but you can gather it up however it suits you. I used darts in the front.

Step 4: Cut out the pockets from the top of the shirt, cutting closely around them. 

Step: 5 Place the pockets where you want them on the body of your skirt and sew them down. I chose to place them on the side seams at the bottom of the skirt. You'll notice that this shirt has a curved edge at the sides, like many button-down shirts do, so this led me to the next step. (skip to step 10 if you're satisfied with the length and don't want to bother with anything else on the bottom. You could also at this point just add a simple ruffle all the way around and ignore the sleeves stuff I did below)

Step 6: Cut the sleeves off your shirt top, snipping closely to the seams, then cut the sleeve open. You'll be left with a piece of fabric this shape.

Step 7: Gather the top of the sleeve (the rounded edge) and pin it into the curved edge of the shirt under your newly located pocket. Do this on both sides obviously (if that's where you put your pocket and if you want to!--I did this next part because I wanted my skirt a little longer and I like to use as much of the shirt as possible) Sew this in place, using your judgement for the gathers. I left the straight edges of the sleeves untouched, as shown in the picture, because I am going to sew them to the ruffle made in Step 8.

Step 8: Using a contrasting fabric, or another shirt, make two long strips (at least 75% longer than the gaps between the two weird sleeve ruffle things you just made! The height of the strip should be about the same size as the straight edges left on the sides of your sleeve ruffle). Cut one strip in half and hem the two short ends that you just created. Why you ask? Because in the front of your skirt, there are two sections because of the buttons. I wanted my ruffle to continue this split. You don't have to though, since it won't affect anything really. Also hem the entire length of the bottom of your strips.

Step 9: Gather the top of your strips and attach them to the spaces between your sleeve ruffles, sewing the edges together where they meet on the sides. It should look like this once it's attached.

 Step 10: Make the waistband. Cut the yoke (the top part of the back of the shirt) from the rest of the shirt. Split it open. Cut 2 equal strips from this fabric and sew them together at the short ends on one side. For me, the 2 sections of the yoke weren't long enough to make a waistband at my natural waist, so I used scraps from other parts of the shirt to make the strip long enough. Then cut the bottom part of the shirt top in half long-ways and make a facing for your waist band. Basically, make another waistband the same size and everything. You want your waistband a little longer than the top of the skirt so that you can finished the ends in the front for more buttons or whatever type of closure you want. You may have to get creative to make the waistband and facing, or use fabric from somewhere else.

Step 11: Sew the facing to the waistband (basically you're sewing two strips of fabric together long-ways that are the same size) Fold it over, encasing the seam inside, and iron it down. (I cut my waist band and facing straight across, rather than having any curve to it. So I will be adding darts later to conform it to my body. You can cut a curved waistband if you'd rather not do darts later)

Step 12: Attach the waistband and facing to your skirt. I sewed the facing around the top of the skirt first, wrong sides together, then pressed a nice edge on the bottom of the waistband. I then flipped the waist band over the skirt and stitched it down, hiding the raw edge inside. It's a good idea to then top-stitch around the top of the waistband, just for a nice finished edge. (Note: I later decided to add a "collar pocket" to the front of my skirt. It would have been better to add this before sewing down the waistband so I could have tucked the top of it into the seam.)

Step 13: The Details. Your skirt is mostly done now, but there are a few things that need done. For one, if your shirt is like mine, the buttonholes are too far apart for comfort. I added buttonholes between the existing ones and used buttons from the top of the shirt. I sewed some hook and eyes into the front center of the waistband to close it at the top. I also sewed a few darts into the waistband to get it to hug my body better, and sewed the skirt shut along the buttons up until the last couple so I won't have to worry about weird gaps around the buttons. I used the little button flaps on the shoulders of the shirts to hold up the sleeve ruffles I made. I used some raw seams I cut off the shirt and scrap fabric from the contrasting shirt to make fun details on the front. My favorite part of the front though is the collar pocket!

The Collar Pocket: I cut the collar and the strip of fabric under it that it is sewn into off the neckline of the shirt. I folded it in half and cut it into two parts. I then sewed these two sections together creating a "square" with vertical seams. The natural curve of the collar makes a great opening for a pocket. I then just top-stitched the pocket onto the skirt, lining up the straight-edge with the buttons. I love this pocket!

I love this skirt! It's very comfortable, but the best part is that I made it from a recycled shirt without a pattern. Sometimes just grabbing a shirt and a pair of scissors is the easiest way to make what you want. No cutting out tissue paper!