Friday Tutorial: T-shirt Skirt

{ m e e t  p i p e r }

the t-shirt skirt

I think I've come up with something pretty fun---its economical, cute and easy.  

For this tutorial you will need a large men's t-shirt.  Raid your husbands closet, ask a boyfriend, or go to find one....but don't go buy a NEW shirt for this, because half the fun is knowing you are using something that you already have or have gotten for cheap and making it fun again.

Step One: Find a Men's T-shirt

 

Step Two: Cut off the bottom hem (cut just above the stitched hem).

Step Three: Cut 3, four inch strips off of the T-shirt (cut through both the front and the back of the T-shirt).

Step Four: Square up the T-shirt part that you have left, by cutting off the sleeves.  Then cut a 7 inch strip of fabric. 

 

Step Five: Cut the 7 inch piece into two pieces (just cutting along the t-shirt seam line)

Finish by cutting off any of the sleeve if you left any of it attached (like I did above.  I was nervous about the length at first and left it on :) )

Step Six: Cut each of your four inch strips (that are more like loops) along one of the seams.

Step Seven: With each of these long 4 inch wide strips take and sew along one of the long edges using the edge of your presser foot (makes the fabric more sturdy and less likely to fray or have other issues) using a 2.5 seam width.

Step Eight: Along the other long edge (opposite for the edge you just sewed) make a seam using a 6.0 seam width (this will be used to gather your ruffles...so leave plenty of thread on both ends and DON'T back stitch).

Step Nine: Pull on one end of your 6.0 seam width stitch thread to gather the material or create the ruffle effect.

Step Ten: Repeat Step Nine on the other two 4 inch strips

Step Eleven: Take your two 7 inch wide strips and sew them together along the 7 inch width side.

 

Step Twelve: Take the top long edge of your 7 inch wide strip and roll the top edge over about one inch to create a casing for your tie to be strung through.

 

Step Thirteen: Sew your ruffles onto your 7 inch width strip.  Start the bottom ruffle about and inch from the bottom of the 7 inch width strip and about a quarter of an inch from the edge (seam allowance for later). Start the middle ruffle up about 1.5-2 inches up from the last ruffle (leaving the quarter of an inch seam allowance on both edges) and then the top ruffle about 1.5-2 inches from the middle ruffle (leaving the quarter of an inch seam allowance on both edges.

Step Fourteen: Once you have all three ruffles sewn on fold your skirt in half length wise, right sides together, and sew this edge together...without catching the loose ends of your ruffles. And leaving the top one inch casing open...this is where your drawstring with thread through later so begin your seam just below this.   

Step Fifteen: Turn the skirt right side out and sew the loose ends of the ruffles that match up to each other. So they aren't all flopsie-mopsie and raw edged, but rather create a look of just three big ruffles that wrap completely around the skirt.

Step Sixteen: Take the bottom hem of the skirt that you cut off at the beginning of the tutorial and thread that through the top 1 inch casing (you created earlier) to create a drawstring.  

And just like that you have a cute skirt made out of an old t-shirt that was just waiting for a make-over.  :)

Comments

[Rachel]

This is so, SO cute! I love her whole outfit! I'll be linking.

[Meredith]

So cute - thanks for sharing! I have been thinking of doing several things with t-shirts and the one thing I plan to do, don't know if you can adapt this to your skirt, I plan to use the hem (that you trimmed off) as the casing for my projects instead of creating one. Since t-shirts do not unravel I was going to leave them unhemmed for the couple projects i have in mind. Just my brainstorming...

[michelle johnnie]

LOVE iT!!! I'm linking!

[Anne]

What a cool idea!! I posted a link to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-girls-ruffled-skirt-from-mens-t-shirt/2009/06/06/
--Anne

[Marleen]

This is really cute!

[Lacie E]

oh my gosh this is soooooo cute. I am just learning to sew but when I get good enough I am trying this for sure (the gathering part scares me lol)

[Alisha Whitfield]

This is absolutely ADORABLE!! I cant wait to try this out. What a clever idea!

[miranda]

This is sooooooooo cute! what a great idea!!!!

greetings Miranda

[Jess @ Floralshowers Craft Blog]

I wish I had a little girl. This skirt is incredibly, incredibly cute! I wonder how many shirts it would take to make me one. :)

[tara steele]

SOO adorable!!! I will definitely be looking in my husbands closet and sewing one of these for my daughter. Quuick question though...I have a 16 month old that is TINY...how should I adjust the size to fit her???

[wholesale kids clothing]

Nice idea! I love the skirt so cute.

-mikee-

[Marilou Torres]

I have a question, if youre making this for an adult, how many shirts should i use? or can i just use fabric?

[jamieS]

I made one! Thanks for the tutorial!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7969744@N06/4404080915/

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[Laura Penna]

This is fabulous. I'm off to make one right now. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Laura Penna]

You should start a flickr group for this project. It's so fun to make. I can't wait for my girl to get home so that I can see how it looks. You can see my skirt here: http://thatwasseweasy.blogspot.com/2010/04/t-shirt-skirt.html

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You are clever. You make it seem so easy. I think she looks so beautiful in her dress and gorgeous hat!

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Gorgeous Skirt!!!! I like its color pattern

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it's a good idea, because I have a lot of old t-shirts that maybe could be useful to do another things.

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This is really cute and looks fabulous.It is a good idea. Kids are really like T shirts and skirts all the time.

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She really looks so cute. And your creativity is excellent..

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SOO adorable!!! I will definitely be looking in my husbands closet and sewing one of these for my daughter. Quuick question though...I have a 16 month old that is TINY...how should I adjust the size to fit her???
This is fabulous. I'm off to make one right now. Thanks for the inspiration!

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It's looking really nice. You do such beautiful work.

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I agree with your idea.You look like very talented.It is very happy to meet you. Thank you!

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It is great to see a site like this one with so much info on it and fab pictures keep up the good work. All the best matt

[Health Blog]

LOVELY! Seriously, fabulous! We'll be linking the next time we do a little girl's clothing tutorial round up...
In the meantime, if you're interested, tomorrow we have a friday fun find party that we'd love for you to link up to!

[ゾフラン]

Hi there,
Really nice job,There are many people searching about that now they will find enough sources by your tips.
Also looking forward for more tips about that

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You are so creative and skillful, too! My mom was the one who taught me to sew, manually and using a sewing machine, but I don't know how to cut fabric and make designs, that is the sad part, though.
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