T-shirt Refashion

I wish I had a picture of the t-shirt I started with for this project - maybe you can picture it in your mind:  It was a big (men's XXL), black, cotton t-shirt with white block letters on the front that said "HAMMER STRENGTH". No idea what that means! We got it from a thrift store when Greg was waiting for his heart transplant and was too swollen up to fit into his regular clothes.  But since neither of us was really into wearing the shirt post-transplant, I decided to try to do a t-shirt refashion with it.  I'd seen tons of people doing them online and thought it'd be fun to try.

I got my basic idea from a tutorial by Happy Together.  My computer is being funky right now so I can't link to the exact tutorial but her site is definitely worth looking at!

Here are my steps:
1.  I cut the t-shirt into two large pieces by first cutting off the sleeves and then cutting along each side.

2.  I laid one of my favorite, well fitting tank tops on top of the t-shirt (front side up) so that the bottom hems lines up.

3.  I used marking chalk to trace around the tank top leaving an extra 1inch wide margin everywhere for my seams later on.  I also added to the length a bit because I like a nice long shirt.

4.  Next I flipped the tank top over so I could trace around the back side of it with my marking chalk (adding my extra margins).

5.  I cut out both sides of the tank top and hemmed around the front and back of the neck and the arm holes.  This was the hardest part because I was trying to make an even, curved hem.  It didn't turn out as smooth as I had hoped but it was okay for a first attempt.

6.  Once the edges were hemmed, I pinned the two sides together so that the right sides were facing each other then sewed down the length of the sides and the top of the straps.

7.  Then I tried it on.  It wasn't exactly perfect so I had to make some minor tweaks, but it was pretty good.  Next I made ruffle strips from leftover t-shirt scraps - I used 5 pieces of t-shirt (one long centerpiece, 2 medium-length, 2 short length), each about 1 inch wide.  I used a basting stitch to ruffle them and then pinned them on the front with the longest strip in the middle and the shortest strips on the ends.

Can you see the Hammer Strength now on the inside of the shirt?

8.  Finally I sewed the middle of each ruffle strip onto the front of the shirt and viola!  All done!

If I made this again I would give it a little more shape at the waist because it sort of pillows out on the sides. It's not my favorite shirt but it's super comfy and is a big improvement over the original t-shirt it was made out of!

Here's another take on the embellished t-shirt if you're looking for more ideas (and a more professionally done tutorial!).