Friday 15 June 2012

Refashion Friday Inspiration: Shawl Collar T-shirt



This is a momentous day. It is the beginning of a new weekly feature on this little blog of mine: Refashion Friday!!! Each and every Friday I will endeavour to share an idea/inspiration point/tip/trick/tutorial to arm refashionistas with ammunition to turn unwanted garments into wonderful and wearable creations.



For today's inaugural Refashion Friday post, here's an idea for how to rev up a boring old plain T-shirt. By adding the contrast shawl collar, you've still got the comfort and ease of wear you get with a T-shirt, but the whole garment is more dressy and cute.

There's one of two ways you could create a garment like this from an existing T-shirt. You could either take a T-shirt that already fits you (or the indented recipient) well then recut the neckline, make the new collar and then attach the collar to the T-shirt. Or you could do what I did here: take a large loose fit T-shirt originally intended for a guy, and cut it up and remake it using a T-shirt sewing pattern to fit you before getting involved in the collar section.

I took the collar pattern from New Look 6808 (pictured above) to make the collar. I also used that sewing pattern's front and back pieces as a guide to recut the new T-shirt neckline. Although the sewing pattern is intended for woven and fabric and the T-shirt is of course jersey, it works fine as long as you're careful not to stretch the raw neckline before you get round to attaching the new woven collar.  


I hope some of you lovely readers found this idea useful or inspiring. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll be happy to elaborate in the comments sections. Happy refashioning!

20 comments:

Kirsty said...

I love this new weekly feature! What a great idea. Thanks Zoe.

Unknown said...

Yay! Love this and looking forward to regular tips and tricks on future Fridays :) BTW Zo, if you didn't want to re cut the neckline of an existing garment, what do you find is the best way of accurately (ish!) tracing the curve of the neckline onto paper (with a view to drafting a collar). Have you ever done this or do you always recut using a pattern as a guide?
Px

Louise said...

I love that pattern and to save the pennies made myself a pattern creating a collar like Miss P said.
Love the idea of a weekly feature, and looking forward to next Fridays tip.
louise

Zoe said...

Thanks very much ladies for your early comments! I'm so happy to hear that the idea of a weekly features appeals to you.

@Miss P: If I were to do it that way round, I'd approach it in the same way as making a pattern from an existing garment. I'd pin the garment on a piece of pattern cutting paper and use my tracing wheel to go round the neckline through to the paper. Do it twice, once for the front neckline and once for the back neckline. I'd the position these two curves so the shoulder seams lined up and make sure the curve they create is nice and clean. Then you'd have the neckline pattern from which to draft your collar. Hope that helped?

Zoe xxx

Christina said...

I already love your new feature. I'm looking forward to the next fridays for more inspiration. :)

Sew Hopeful said...

That looks great. I have that pattern and that is such a creative way of using it. I even have a mens tshirt in white and a similar floral fabric in my stash....it was meant to be....THANKS and I love this a new weekly feature.

Sew Hopeful said...

That looks great. I have that pattern, a mens white t, some floral fabric in my stash that looks very similar. Its meant to be!!! Actually that is a great way of using that New Look pattern. Thanks, Zoe.

Sue said...

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing. I've already got a big old t-shirt and the same NL pattern you used for the collar. Can't wait to try it out!

jadestar said...

I love this top! what a great idea. Fab new blog feature. I can't wait to see your other ideas.

Marie said...

This is such a gorgeous re-fashion and I love that this will be a regular feature...thank you for the inspiration!!! I really want that New Look pattern now your version and Winnie's ones have won me over!

Lenora Jane said...

I like both the idea and the alliteration (not to mention that top!)...looking forward to more!

Unknown said...

Ooh great idea, love this and love the new feature! Can't wait to see what your crafty brain comes up with ! x

Anonymous said...

So cute!!! Thanks a million for the new feature. It's going to help many of us a great deal, plus it's just fun to see what you've come up with.
Shelley

Bella said...

Thats great, Zoe. Cute idea.

Unknown said...

This is an amazing idea for a new feature! I'm super excited to see what you come up with and have a go myself!

Ren @ Sew, Renae said...

What a fantastic idea! I have that pattern in my stash.

Sew Lonnie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sew Lonnie said...

Woops, I accidentally deleted my comment, thanks for the hot tip and kind words :)

Unknown said...

T-shirts are typically made of cotton fibers (sometimes others), knitted together in a jersey stitch that gives a T-shirt its distinctive soft texture.
Custom Tshirts

Taylor Bara said...

The best ideas to write aterm paper on are here https://samedaypaper.org/blog/term-paper-writing.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...