Altered Tee Shirt

Okay, so everybody and their grandmother (me) are now doing Tee Shirt surgery to any piece of knitted tee, old or new, that they can find.

This was my first. A very nice garment dyed blue tee that started life at $4.99 and a size Men's 2XL.

I know, I know. THAT'S SO BIG! However, I like that size because I can wash it, shrink it and then cut it out to fit me using a pattern that is the size I want for the project.

I've talked to a lot of women about their tee shirts and many have the complaint that I have; too big on top, too tight at the hip. grrrrr.

Well, if you have a pattern that you like, you can just lay it out on this big sucker and cut. You then end up with a tee that is more fitted across the top and sleeves, make the side curve in and out and have a perfect fit at the hips.

This is the front. I wanted to use it as an off the shoulder cover up and it is, indeed, off the shoulder. But just right for me. And, cool to wear here in hot, humid south Florida.


This is the back.

I used a commercial stamp and plain old craft paint to stamp the leaves and just love the way they tumble down the front and back, too.

Adding the word, "leaf" adds to the interest, the design balance, and as my hubby says, makes it unmistakably "leafy".

I didn't want the sleeves to hang down to my elbows, even though I cut them to a rather short length, so I added cut strips of fabric to the inside and outside of the sleeve to tie them up and keep them up.

The bottom is just raw edged and it rolls nicely.


A close up of the neckline shows that it, too, is raw edged with some embroidery to stabilize the edge and give it some additional interest.

Doing the embroidery by hand was a lot of fun. I hadn't been doing much hand work lately and getting back into my collection of embroidery floss, needles and thimbles reminded me again of how much I used to embroider my creations when I was a teen.

Some activities are fun forever.