Restyling a shirt into a new piece
Okay. Last lesson we made shop rags out of a flannel that was too far gone for anything else. This lesson is the opposite problem. This is for a shirt that's still good, still has life in it, it's just not a shirt anymore for whatever reason. Doesn't fit right. Wrong size for the person who owns it now. Stain on the front that won't come out no matter what you throw at it. You're not throwing it away, you're turning it into something else.
I want to be clear about what this lesson is and isn't. This isn't "design something artistic out of a shirt." I can't teach that because I can't do that. Freehand, make-something-pretty projects lock me right up, I need a shape to copy and improve on, that's just how my brain works. What I can teach you is turning a shirt into a specific other thing on purpose. A tote bag. A pillow cover. A kid's shirt cut down from an adult one. Something with a spec.
Pick your target before you cut anything
This is the part people skip and then regret. You do not just start cutting a shirt because you feel restless and it's sitting there. You decide what you're making first, you figure out roughly what pieces you need, and then you go find them inside the shirt.
Today I'm going to walk you through the tote bag version, because it's the most forgiving and it uses almost the whole shirt.
What you need: - One shirt, button-up works best because it gives you flat panels to work with - Pins - Your machine, threaded, needle changed if it's been a while (change your needle more than you think you need to, I'll say it every module because it's true) - Scissors, a ruler, chalk or a fabric pen
Step by step
1. Lay the shirt flat and decide your bag size. Button it up first, lay it front side up. The width of the shirt body, from side seam to side seam, is basically your bag width already sitting there. Decide how tall you want the bag. Mark it with chalk.
2. Cut off the top. Cut straight across above your marked line, through both layers, front and back. You just made a tube. Set the collar and yoke and sleeves aside, don't toss them yet, we'll use a sleeve for straps in a minute.
3. Sew the bottom shut. Turn your tube inside out. Pin the raw bottom edge, front to back. Measure twice here, I mean it, an uneven bottom seam is the kind of thing that bugs you every single time you set the bag down for the next two years. Sew straight across.
4. Box the corners if you want it to stand up. Pinch a bottom corner so the side seam lines up with the bottom seam, forming a little triangle. Sew straight across that triangle a couple inches up from the point. Do the same on the other corner. This is optional. If you skip it the bag just lies flatter, which is fine too.
5. Make straps from a sleeve. Cut a sleeve open along its seam, cut two long straight strips, fold the raw edges in and topstitch them down the length. That's your straps. Pin them to the inside of the bag opening, one on the front, one on the back, and sew them in place with a few passes back and forth. Straps are a stress point, this is one of the spots where I do want you backstitching, or going over it a few extra times. Everywhere else on this bag, a couple of forward stitches and a knot is plenty. I know that goes against what every tutorial online tells you. I still think it's true for casual stuff like this. Save the heavy reinforcement for the parts that'll actually be yanked on.
6. Finish your top edge. Fold the raw top edge down an inch, pin it, zigzag or straight stitch it down. Now the bag's opening won't fray every time you use it.
That's a whole bag out of one shirt, no wasted fabric, and the collar and buttons and extra scraps go in your bin for the next thing.
A word on buying less fabric
I say this every module practically. Buy less, cut better. The skill isn't in having a drawer full of shirts you might use someday, it's in looking at the one shirt you've got and getting the most out of it. This bag project uses the body, the bottom, and a sleeve. The other sleeve, the collar, the button placket, all of that can become a smaller project, a pocket, a patch, straps for something else down the line. Don't let scraps just sit there being scraps. Use what you already killed the shirt to get.
Unrelated to sewing, but it drives me nuts, I still cannot get a crochet magic ring to close up right. Kristin's tried to show me twice. My machine does exactly what I tell it, every time, but hand me a hook and a loop of yarn and suddenly nothing obeys. Point being, you're allowed to be good at one craft and bad at an adjacent one. Doesn't mean you quit either.
A real caution
If you're cutting through a folded shirt with the collar or button placket still attached, watch your fingers near those layers, they're thicker than they look and scissors can slip when you're cutting through uneven bulk. Cut slow through the thick spots.
Before next time
Bring in a shirt you've already written off, something you were about to donate or toss, and we'll figure out together what it wants to become.