Pinterest Refashion From Trash To Couture: Men's XL T-Shirt to Women's Dolman Shirt

Pin It Needless to say, I am in a refashion frenzy.  I am determined to do most of the 68 pins on my Sewing Projects board on Pinterest.  Anyway, this is a great tutorial from Trash to Couture that gave me an idea what to do with all those free t-shirts we get from events.  They are usually in men's XL, which is too large for either me or my husband.  So here's the before and after of a shirt I got from a NY Ranger game:

Before

After

I wish I didn't cut the neckline so large because this will only work with either a sports bra or a bathing suit.  At least I'll have something kind of dressy to walk the pup in or a nice cover up for the beach.  For my value-added in this post, a little about making gathers.  My source, again, is the Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing.

To make the gathers at the bottom of the shirt, adjust the tension on your machine to zero and the stitch length to the largest.  The book suggests using contrasting thread colors for the bobbin and for the top thread to make it easier to identify the bobbin thread.  The bobbin thread is what you're going to pull to make the gathers.  Sew two parallel lines of 5-6 inches each from the bottom of the shirt.  Lock only where you end sewing.  Don't lock the stitches closest to the bottom of the shirt.  This gives you a side to pull the gathers from, while keeping the other end locked which prevents your gathers from coming undone.  Pull the bobbin thread of both lines you sewed at the same time to make the gathers. Once you've done your gathers, adjust your machine tension and stitch length back to normal.  Sew a line along the gathers you made.  It helps if you have your hands holding the gathers on either side of the presser foot when you sew the lines.  This time, lock the stitches to make sure the gathers are held in place.  This is pretty much the same technique you can use with making ruffles.

Enjoy your shirt!