resized, cutified

so i posted this at least 3 months ago but i just came back to craftster after a forced internet hiatus and am back to post a text-only tutorial for making big ugly t-shirts cute. (i have a new comptuer without any simple drawing software i can find and i figured pictures would be a bit redundant anyway. if you have questions about it you can e-mail me at etothev@REMOVESPAMBLOCKERonomatopoetic.org)

1. start with a t-shirt that is both too wide and too long (i.e. just too big)
2. figure out how small you want the shirt. if it's a standard 100% cotton shirt it probably doesn't have a lot of give to it and you should remember that the smaller you make it the harder it is to pull it over your head. this shirt worked really well because it's a very drapey cotton/polly blend but it should work relatively well with those oversized band t-shirts that are filling your drawer.

some people say to pin the shirt to yourself so you know the size to make it, but i just eyeball it. for this shirt i took in about an inch and a half on each side. i just turned the shirt inside out, laid it flat, and then sewed a straight line from the bottom hem to the arm opening. if you sew a straight line about an inch and a half the whole way up the shirt you'll run straight into the arm hole. backstick there to keep the seam from unraveling and you're all done with one side. just cut off the sleeve on the other side of the original armhole seam (you could fold over and sew a seam yourself to make it look nicer, but i didn't). do the same thing to the other side and now the shirt should fit you.

3. to do the neck, just cut off the original neck band, fold over, pin, and stich around. i used a zig-zag stitch so it was kind of decorative and i think it was easier to do than a straight stitch because it's harder to tell when you sew a crooked zig-zag stitch! it seems like just cutting off the original neck band shouldn't make the neck that much bigger BUT IT DOES!

4. to do the waistband basically just figure out how long you want the shirt put the t-shirt on and just fold it under until it's the length you want. then pull it back down about an inch longer than you want it (for seam allowance). then just cut off the folded part of the shirt (mine was about 3 inches doubled over, so if i unfolded the shirt again it would be the bottom 6 inches of the shirt). that turns into the waistband. just leave that part folded with the wrong sides together, then pin that waistband to the outside of the shirt with the cut edges facing down and the right sides together. sew around the bottom of the shirt (i did a zig-zag stitch to tame 3 layers i was sewing and then i sewed a straight stitch at the inside edge of the zig-zag stitch). then you can just fold the waistband down and you're all set!

hope that helps! the original pictures help with the tutorial i think, so check those out and ask me if anything still seems really confusing.

thanks for all the nice comments!