Hey, I'm feeling long winded tonight, so I thought I would over-explain something.  Yay!

First off, here’s the shirt hanging on my closet door with a monster fur scarf that you can barely see.  (Ah, how my camera sucks...)


Anyway...the trick to this shirt is to use a skirt that really hangs well.  Cotton probably won’t work (unless it's cut on the bias) – you need something synthetic and stretchy.  I had a polka dot skirt made of stretchy *and* shiny (oi) polka dot fabric, but it was too big so I needed to turn it into something else.

This is what I did...

(Yeah, my tutorial consists of tiny, ghetto, mouse-drawn pictures, and for that I apologize.)


You'll probably want to use a shirt that fits well as a guide, but you guys already knew that.  I used a serger to finish all the edges, but you don't have to do that (particularly if your fabric is knit).



See, it looks all toga-ish, like a Grecian statue.  Only in my case, with polka dots.

Here I am in the bathroom mirror, so you can see the nice draping.


This is my favorite reconstruction so far -- and I can even wear it to work.  Thanks for looking...

Here is a shirt that I re-made for my best friend for her birthday.  It was one of her favorite shirts a long time ago, but it was just a big boxy T that she never wore.  (It was from a now-defunct radio collective.)  She gave it to me almost a year ago and said, "Make me something cool."  Then she promptly forgot about it, and I did this:



I cut down the sides using a fitted t-shirt that I knew would fit her, and shaped the bottom and sleeves to exaggerate their curves once gathered.  I cut a wide neckline, then sewed it back together.  I took very narrow elastic and sewed it up the sides, keeping it stretched as I sewed to make the gathers.  I did the same thing in the center of each sleeve.

She loved it -- here she is wearing it...



I thought it was sort of elegant punk rock, which made sense with the little punk rock graohic on the t-shirt...

Thanks for looking.

Well, I jumped in and made a stencil this evening.  I used the ever-popular freezer paper method, and I have to say that it worked really well.  Oh, and the paint really is a sparkly red -- that wasn't just the flash.  I used a font from stencil revolution for the lettering (and yes, I stole the phrase from t-shirt hell -- my apologies for unoriginality), but I drew the disk underneath.  I tried to match the mood of the font, but I am not an artist (obviously)...



Just wanted to share...

Thanks for all the inspiration!

I didn't really use a pattern for this, but I took an easy sort of evening bag shape, and made it really big to make it an overnight bag.  It sort of went flopsy-doodle on me.  (I should have used a fabric with more body, and maybe some interfacing.)  You can't see it because my camera is less than thrilling and the bag is black, but it has a nice inverted pleat in the center of both the front and the back, and I squared the bottom.

Hanging up and looking floppy:


Flat on my embarrassingly unmade bed:


And a close up of the trim, which is the best part of this silly bag:


I will be able to use the bag, though.  Being stuffed full of clothes helps it to retain its shape.  Let's just call this a learning experience.  (That's what my Dad always says, anyway...)

I don't have a before picture, but in its previous life, this was a really ugly baseball style shirt with navy blue sleeves.  I loved the little saying, though, so I took off the sleeves and added some nice black and white checkered bias tape I found in the quilting section of the fabric store and made this...



I hope you can see the pic.  I know this project is less fabulous than many I've seen on here, but the shirt was really ugly before, I promise.

I got two compliments when I wore it out the other night...that's gotta count for something, right?