Sew White

Having a sewing machine has absolutely let loose all those facric-y, thread-y mending feelings of mine. I can hardly look a T-shirt now without wondering how I could make it fit better, embellish it, cut it, re-use it. It's becoming a little bit of a problem. But a wonderful problem all the same.

I bought two long sleeve shirts (in November) in preparation for winter. They were solids, I bought them on a super sale, and it seemed everything was going perfect until I came home and realized somewhere between the fitting room and our house, the shirts grew a size. They were baggy and loose and not in a good way. But, instead of returning them (Rule No. 1: Being at a store increases the chances of buying something) I let them gather dust in my closet. 

I felt like blog-land kind of came together for me as project after project scrolled across my feed and Pinterest boards- re-fashioning shirts, re-using shirts, re-decorating shirts- and I knew I had to answer the call. 

So I dusted off my machine, threaded my bobbins and went to work!

I loosely followed a tutorial which I can't find at the moment, but mostly just kind of wung it (winged it? wang it?). Impatience is my strong suit.

I laid the shirt inside-out flat (no wrinkles!) and laid a close-fitting shirt on top of it. Look at all that white space.

In retrospect, using a sharpie- no matter how lightly intended- may have not been the best idea to trace a line on which to sew your new line. I think overall there was about an inch on each side that I could take in to get the shirt to sit closer to my body. 

My biggest issue came with the sleeves- look at all those seams coming together! But I tried to match where my "new" seam would be from the side AND where the original seam was for the arm- if I could take them both back to where they met, then maybe this could work.

And it did, thank goodness. What's the worst that could happen? A seam ripper?

Things I have learned from sewing:
1. Slow.....down. The project is not going anywhere.
2. Get better scissors, stat.
3. Get better lighting, stat.
4. If you can't get a hold of #1, become friends with a seam-ripper.

This shirt fits MUCH better now- despite the fact I have a few wrinkles on the side. Guess I'll have to take it in a little again?