The Luck of the DIY Shirt
There's a pot of gold at the end of this DIY!
I don't know if this happened to any of you, but when I was in elementary school, the rule on St. Patrick's day was that if you didn't wear green, you would get pinched. By everyone. All day.
And I always got pinched. Every year. Not a good childhood memory!
Today's DIY will ensure that this will not happen to you. In fact, you will probably get some compliments and we asked where you got your shirt from.
And you can hold you chin up and proud say, "I did it myself! (…with the help of SS from Beautifully Created DIYs!)"
So let's get a start on your wardrobe for St. Patty's day!
Supplies:
Green t-shirt (you can get one for a couple bucks at your nearest Hobby Lobby or Michaels store with a coupon)
Permanent fabric adhesive
Scissors
8 x 11.5 paper
Ruler with centimeters (cm)
Pencil
Step 1:
We're going to create an oval stencil.
Take the paper and fold it in half along the short side, evenly.
Open it and rip it along the line you just folded, leaving you with two halves. We're only using one of the halves. Put the other one away (or throw it away- choice is yours).
Step 2:
Fold the paper in half along the short side, evenly, and then fold it in half again.
Take your ruler and pencil, and long the short side, measure out 3.5 centimeters (cm) and put a tick mark at the edge of the paper.
Do the same thing to the long side, but measure out 6.5 cm, and put a tick mark at the edge.
Draw a curved line that connects the 6.5 cm mark to the 3.5 cm mark. Now, take your scissors and cut along the curved line, and after you're done, open it up.
This will be your stencil for making the designs.
Step 3:
Let's draw the keyhole pattern onto the front of the shirt!
Take the green shirt and turn it inside out. Go to the front of the shirt by the collar, take your oval stencil, and put it right underneath the collar so that the long side touches the bottom of the collar (but just barely touches). Take your pencil and trace along the sides of the oval onto the shirt. Make sure that you can see the lines drawn from the pencil.
Now, rotate the oval so that the shorter part of the oval touches the collar, and align it with what you just drew so that it will look like a pointed "U". Adjust the oval as much as needed. Once you're pleased with the placement, trace it onto the shirt.
Go back to the collar and draw lines to connect the lines you previously drew to the collar.
What you drew onto the shirt should look like a pointed "U" , as I mentioned before.
Step 4:
Time to draw the "open shoulder" pattern on the sleeves.
Take the shirt and face the top of one of the sleeves towards you.
Put the oval on top so that the short side touches the shoulder blade of the shirt. Leave a little bit of room away from the stitching. Trace the entire oval.
Do the same thing with the other sleeve.
Step 5:
Now it's time to cut out what you just traced.
I started with what I traced first. Be careful to not cut any stitching, as this will ruin the look that we're going for. Cut the pattern on the sleeves as well.
Step 6:
It's time to hem the edges so it doesn't look tacky
Start with the collar area first.
Take the fabric adhesive, and dab glue dots lightly along what was cut, leaving a little bit of space between the glue and the edge. Do this all around.
Fold the edge over onto the glued area, all the way around the oval. Pinch the edge together to make sure that the fabric adheres to the other side of the fabric.
Do the exact same thing to the oval cutouts on both shoulders.
And that's it!
You have now turned a plain green t-shirt into a fabulous keyhole top with a cold shoulder design. Stylish!
(don't mind the background...that's my son's room).
This tutorial can be used on any t-shirt with sleeves. And you can just do the keyhole design only, or just the open shoulder design. Completely up to you! Turn your tomboy wardrobe into sophistication.
Have fun with it!
Keeping it Classy & Crafty,
-SS
