T-Shirt Transformations

Summer is without a doubt my favorite season of the year. I have always loved summer! I love relaxing by pools, lakes, or beaches, I love the heat (most days), I love having no school (as a student and as a teacher), and my birthday is in the summer! At least in the Northern Hemisphere anyways... :-)

However, summer brings with it the inevitable boredom of some days. Enter Pinterest! Or as my husband so fondly refers to it "fantasy football for girls." Which probably isn't so far off the mark! And for my friends on facebook - I apologize for the repeat of several pictures. So my starting line-up from pinterest will be my t-shirt transformations. More specifically, a t-shirt into a tank top and a t-shirt headband.

This probably started as a conversation between my mom and I where we lamenting the high-necked collars of t-shirts. She was complaining about the collars of t-shirts and how it bugs her, and I laughed at her slightly obsessive comments only to realize that as she was talking, I too was pulling on the neck of my shirt. In fact, every one of my shirts is distinctly stretched at the neck from my constant tugging. Hmmm...something about the apple and the tree?! So my mom has been giving some of her t-shirts to my grandma (who recently moved close to them, yay!) and Grandma has been converting them into v-necked collars. Can I say LOVE!?! That too is on my list of t-shirt projects, but until I can go visit my grandma for a tutorial, I had to make do with turning a t-shirt into a tank top.

Pinterest saves the day! I found a tutorial from crafterhours that gave excellent step-by-step instructions for the whole process. So if you're interested and want more explanation than I give, go check it out - very helpful! It was a really simple process that took me 30 minutes from start-to-finish. Which included trying to figure it out along the way, so it really was quick. Although, I had a sewing machine which definitely speeds up the process!

I took an old shirt that I no longer wear (in case it didn't work out!) and began cutting.
Before

After 

It worked! And is now a LOT more comfortable! So with a little more confidence, I picked a shirt that I still enjoy wearing and tried again. This time taking pictures along the way :-)

Here is the shirt before I started. Note my dog, Link's paw in the bottom right corner. He just loves to help out with Pinterest projects!

First cut off the sleeves along the inside seam. Then cut a straight line across the top, just underneath the collar. Now, below is where I started the sewing part.

I folded the top edge over and pinned it. Then used my sewing machine to sew a straight seam. I made the seam about a half-inch wide. For the next step, I didn't take a picture, but I cut off the bottom seam of the t-shirt and then used that as the straps for the tank top.

 You have to thread the strap through the seam, so I attached a safety pin to the end of the strap in order to give me something solid to hold onto. And here's the finished product!

And like I mentioned, the original blog that I linked to has a WAY more detailed step-by-step process, so if you're wanting to make one, go check that out for sure! Hahaha, it'll be a lot easier to follow than my half instructions :-)

And when Scott recently got an ink stain on one of his undershirts, I was provided with the material for my second t-shirt project! Oh gee, Scott, I'm sorry about your shirt! But here's my new t-shirt headband ;-) The tutorial for this project can be found here, from the blog Julie Ann Art.

I cut his undershirt into five horizontal strips, and then sewed them together at one end. I then began a five-strand braid. Which is explained really well, with pictures, in the blog tutorial that I linked to. After braiding a sufficient length to wrap around my head, I attached the two ends together, and there you have it! Extremely comfortable and very handy! Just think of all the fun colors you could use from shirts. Now I just need to wait for more to be ruined...

So thanks to my Pinterest first-round draft picks, I now have two t-shirts turned comfortable tank tops and a headband! Next up for t-shirts...a t-shirt quilt. And I promise to share my progress as I go along!