{Blast from the Past} Purple Rosette Tee

I dug this one out of the vaults and dusted it off for you all, in case you missed it the first time around.  I'm sure you have a tee or two hiding in your closet or shoved in the back of your drawer that could use a makeover.  Here's some inspiration for you:

Purple Rosette Tee

Today I'm sharing a simple way to disguise a holey tee.  I'm still a novice seamstress, so when it comes to me and sewing, simple is best.

I had a little bit of a mystery-a bunch of almost new tees were developing holes in them, all near the bottom of the shirt, thus ruining otherwise perfectly good shirts.  Not only was it frustrating because I didn't know what was causing the holes, but I felt like I was wasting money because these shirts that had only been worn 2 or 3 times were now trashed.  

This is only about half of the pile of shirts with holes.  I needed to come up with a creative way to cover up the holes without it being obvious that I was hiding something.

With the purple tee (which is also right there on the top), the holes were kind of big and covered a wider area

They were also a little off-center, so it presented a bigger challenge. 

To fix yours up, you'll need:

A holey tee

A tee to cut up in a matching/coordinating color

matching thread

rotary mat, cutter and ruler

tailor's chalk 

Then I found this tee at a consignment shop and had an idea.  It matched the contrast stitching on the purple holey tee perfectly.

It was only $3!  And HUGE!  I've never seen such a large medium-sized tee!  But that meant there was plenty of fabric to work with.

To start off with, I folded the dark purple tee in half and with tailor's chalk, marked a line diagonally down from the collar to just past the last hole at the bottom.

I pulled it out flat like this, still keeping it folded in half (see the chalk line) so that the area I cut out would be even.  Then I cut out that chunk-bye-bye holes!

I measured the length of the piece I cut out and the width at the bottom and cut a piece out using those measurements from the lavender tee.

I wanted it to have a gathered look at the top, so I stitched some thread in about 1/4 in. down from the top of the edge and gathered it by pulling on the thread.

Then, using the piece I had cut out of the purple tee as a guide, I trimmed up the lavender piece

Then pinned it in place.

And sewed the pieces together.

Like so.

Now, you could stop here if you wanted.  But I felt it needed a little something more.

Rosettes make everything prettier!  I cut a few strips of fabric from the lavender tee and rolled them into rosettes, stitching them in place as I went so they wouldn't come undone.

Then attached them to my tee at the collar.

And there you have it!

Holes? What holes?

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope you love yours too!

{Fashion Friday} Purple Rosette Tee

In case you weren't able to stop by Tea Rose Home to see my guest post, here's what I shared with Sachiko's awesome readers:

Rosette Tee

Today I'm sharing a simple way to disguise a holey tee.  I'm still a novice seamstress, so when it comes to me and sewing, simple is best.

I had a little bit of a mystery-a bunch of almost new tees were developing holes in them, all near the bottom of the shirt, thus ruining otherwise perfectly good shirts.  Not only was it frustrating because I didn't know what was causing the holes, but I felt like I was wasting money because these shirts that had only been worn 2 or 3 times were now trashed.  

This is only about half of the pile of shirts with holes.  I needed to come up with a creative way to cover up the holes without it being obvious that I was hiding something.

With the purple tee (which is also right there on the top), the holes were kind of big and covered a wider area

They were also a little off-center, so it presented a bigger challenge. 

To fix yours up, you'll need:

A holey tee

A tee to cut up in a matching/coordinating color

matching thread

rotary mat, cutter and ruler

tailor's chalk 

Then I found this tee at a consignment shop and had an idea.  It matched the contrast stitching on the purple holey tee perfectly.

It was only $3!  And HUGE!  I've never seen such a large medium-sized tee!  But that meant there was plenty of fabric to work with.

To start off with, I folded the dark purple tee in half and with tailor's chalk, marked a line diagonally down from the collar to just past the last hole at the bottom.

I pulled it out flat like this, still keeping it folded in half (see the chalk line) so that the area I cut out would be even.  Then I cut out that chunk-bye-bye holes!

I measured the length of the piece I cut out and the width at the bottom and cut a piece out using those measurements from the lavender tee.

I wanted it to have a gathered look at the top, so I stitched some thread in about 1/4 in. down from the top of the edge and gathered it by pulling on the thread.

Then, using the piece I had cut out of the purple tee as a guide, I trimmed up the lavender piece

Then pinned it in place.

And sewed the pieces together.

Like so.

Now, you could stop here if you wanted.  But I felt it needed a little something more.

Rosettes make everything prettier!  I cut a few strips of fabric from the lavender tee and rolled them into rosettes, stitching them in place as I went so they wouldn't come undone.

Then attached them to my tee at the collar.

And there you have it!

Holes? What holes?

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope you love yours too!

I'm working on some more tee re-vamps so be on the look-out!

{Fashion Friday} Dress Re-fashions

Sorry about the lack of posting this week, guys.  I spent the week at my mom's and kinda took a break from everything.  I did, however, get some sewing in and I made a considerable dent in my "need to be fixed" pile.

I had dresses in that pile that needed some modestification (that's totally a word now) so that I could feel comfortable wearing them out in public : )

This one is actually from back in December.  My husband's work throws a semi-fancy Christmas party every year so I had to find something nice to wear.  I found this pretty off-white dress at Forever 21 for only $11!  It was just a tad too short and the pretty tulip skirt kinda showed a little too much, so, with my mom's help, I attached a tulle ruffle all the way around.  The original plan was to make kind of an underskirt for it, but I couldn't find fabric that matched ANYWHERE!  The dress is kind of an odd color-it's more like a grayish off-white, but I found some tulle that matched perfectly and ta-da!  Sorry there's no before picture or one of me wearing it-I lost some pics a couple weeks ago and I'm guessing that since I can't find them, those pictures were part of that.

I was really happy with how it turned out and got very nice compliments on it all night long : )

This dress I snatched up on sale at Kohls a couple months back and it's been sitting in my "mending" bag ever since because it was about 6 inches too short.  When I bought it, I knew exactly how I was going to alter it, it's just been a matter of sitting down and doing it!

I made a nice, long black panel to attach to the bottom 

{Look!  I'm sewing on a sewing machine!  And in straight lines too!}

And now it's ready to wear!

If you've been following along for a while, you might recognize this dress from a past What I'm Wearing.  This pretty white dress is from H & M.  It has some lovely cap sleeves, which, unfortunately, let some things hang out, if you will.

But there's nothing a little ruffle can't fix!  I added a ruffle that was wide near the bottom and sides of the sleeves and got skinnier at the top.  I'm thinking of adding a matching ruffle to the bottom {it feels a little short to me when I wear it and it makes me self-conscious : p}

I've got a formal dress that I'm working on-I promise pics when it's all done!

Hope you have a fab weekend!

Fashion Fridays: Holey Tee Revamp #2

I hope you all have been enjoying Reader Appreciation Week!

I've been working on that pile of t-shirts again and got one done this week (along with a bunch more sewing projects!)

I saw this shirt while in Miami and knew exactly shirt I could do this to!

This shirt had a pretty good sized hole.  I was so upset-I'd only worn it a few times!  But I thought the ruffles and lace would be perfect to covering it up and adding some flair.  I stitch up the hole, so it wouldn't keep growing, then got to work.

I started from measuring the shirt from the right shoulder seem to bottom middle (just a little to the left of the hole.)  Using those measurements, I cut two pieces of lace and then added on 6 inches to the length and cut out two pieces of knit fabric that were 2 inches wide.  I ruffled the knit fabric.

Then I pinned on one piece of lace, sewed it in place, then pinned on a ruffle and sewed it in place.

Repeat with the remaining lace and ruffle.

And you're done!

I like the way the ruffles and the lace look together.

And that hole?

Can't even tell it was ever there!