New Lives From Old T-Shirts {A Cute Nightgown}

  I had a lot of fun with this project. Sorry I didn't get it posted yesterday as planned - I was busy making it instead! (sometimes I just don't get everything done in the timeliness that I would like but we'll make do with the time we have!) I made a fancy little nightie.  I had fun trying out a couple of different techniques on it that I have seen others do elsewhere. I now have lots more ideas of places that I would like to try some of the things that I did with this project.

 This project has been one that I have long been planning on doing (for a year or so now) since I saw the two shirts in my re-purposing pile that both had yellow, dark orange and light orange on them and thought how pretty they looked together and decided it would make a cute nightgown. As easily happens though - the project got put off to make way for more important things.

 Besides the two multi-colored shirts I did also use a yellow shirt and an old white one. I took a lot of pictures of the process which I will share but I am not really going to give step by step instructions as I am doubtful you will have exactly what I have to work with nor will you necessarily want to make exactly what I made. Hopefully though you might gain some ideas from the process to be able to use in whatever project you do want to work on.

I wanted the striped shirts to be the base of the garment so I did some holding up on myself and figuring out just how it might work best.

I decided to cut off the sleeves and neckline and V the neck as shown above.

 Then I took the white shirt and cut a section out like this to use as a base for the "skirt". This is just to sew the ruffles on to so it is not really seen.

 Then I cut ruffles out. To make these I found larger sections of fabric and simply cut them in a spiral strip with the strip being close to the same width all the way. It doesn't have to be perfect.

 Now it is time to attach them. I pinned on the first strip but then I just sewed them on without pinning after that. I spiraled up the tube taking turns between the yellow and the floral. I do think it would look good in all one color too but I didn't have enough fabric to do that.

The picture above shows the process of sewing it on.

 Next I decided to work on straps. I cut the hem (plus some extra) off of the sleeves and then just folded and sewed it again so that it was sturdy.

 I then pinned on the straps as shown and also put a folded over piece of fabric down in the V and pinned and then sewed it in place.

 Next I cut out a bunch of narrow yellow strips which I sewed, ruffling up as I went, all around the neck line and arm holes. I also attached the back of the straps to the back before I sewed the yellow ruffle on there.

I did also sew the side seams of the shirt in farther so that it wouldn't be gappy.

 I attached the skirt to the top but tucking the skirt inside the bottom of the shirt and then just sewing a top stitch to hold it all together.

 Here is a closer look at the top.

I think it turned out pretty cute though I am not sure how practical it is as a nightgown but it doesn't cover well enough for me to wear it elsewhere. I think it will work. Another time though I want to use some of these ideas to make some cute skirts and dresses.

 Next week I plan on sharing a list (with links) of a bunch of different ways you can re-purpose t-shirts. If you have written a post about re-purposing t-shirts I would love to know about it so I can add it to my list!

Or if you just have a comment or idea on re-purposing t-shirts I would love to hear them!