those shirts look great on you. I'd love to know how to make that first one. And that biker on is great. My dad saw it and he loves it, of course hes ex's hells angel that grew up doing hound and hare runs. So he can appreciate the saying lol
I'm honored
hehe
I've had that shirt since the 80's. It's a local club here in the Phx area...
Here's how I did it..
This pic just shows how I cut it off... I forgot to take a complete before pic... I cut it straight across just under the underarm seam. See how it sticks up a little bit there? I had to trim that off straight.
Lay it on the side... like this... and trim the top edge...
The above pic also shows what I do to my shirts so they will fit... I designed that piece and it's been working pretty good. I cut it out of a stretch fabric, the same fabric I cut the top band out of, it's cottom with 5% spandex, that way all my shirts will fit snugly and have some stretch especially if they are regular t shirt fabric which doesn't stretch much...
Next I cut the piece for the top band... Just make a tube. I cut it about 5" to 6" wide and for length I measured around my chest and arms where the band will be... add a half inch or so for screwing up just in case...
Sew right sides together down the long edge and turn inside out... sew the seam to make the band... One thing that I may try next time, I put the long seam in the centre of the tube and it turns out you can kinda see the ridge through on the right side. Next time I'll probably put it on the bottom edge...
Here's what it looks like closer... You can use that last seam to make it fit the way you want... put the band on after you sew it together and see if you want to make it smaller. If so do it now before you attach it to the shirt because that seam is in the centre back and you won't be able to take it in...
This pic shows what it looks like wfter I sewed the band on...
This pic shows about where to end the stitching so your arm will fit comfortably through there... To judge where that should be I put the shirt on and put the band on and centred everything then made a mark on either side where I thought it should go. Have someone help you with the back two spots... I had to add some elastic along that edge which is now the underarm... It just poked out too much and it needed to be drawn in... I had some lingerie elastic and it was good for that area. Just fold the edge over onto the elastic, stretch the elastic and not the shirt as you sew it on with a zigzag stitch
I can't think of anything else. It was really easy so if you have any questions I'll be happy to help...
Remember you can use any stretch fabric for the band so even another shirt may work if there's enough fabric and it's stretchy enough... If you don't have any stretch fabric you could even add some elastic in that seam in the back... If you actually want to buy some stretch fabric I would get cottom with more than 5% spandex... 10% would be awesome, I'm looking for some now.
Maxine
