One problem I have with sewing is that it usually involves cutting. I love beautiful fabric, but then I fear that I will I mess up the cutting step and be unable to add it all back up. So, when my husband threw several shrunken black t-shirts in the GRO (Get Rid Of) pile and took the boys off for the morning, I jumped on the rags with glee and started hacking away. T-shirt reconstruction is so liberating that way.
One shirt (the rattiest) became a skirt. Two more were cut freehand into shapes like a thirds of a donut, reconnected into large loops of three segments each and gathered on the skirt from the bottom up in overlapping, uneven ruffles with a zig-zag stitch. It was so fun not to use a pattern or a ruler, just scissors, a rotary cutter, pins and thread. This is the only picture I stopped to take.
Then I tried it on, adjusted the length (with the scissors--no hemming) and added an elastic waistband.
When my darling came home and saw the shredded remains of his shirts on the floor surrounding a randomly-ruffled skirt he said, " I didn't EVER think my old shirts could look like that." (I'm not sure if it was said with awe or shock.)
I used one stained, faded shirt for the base and two that had just shrunk into short boxy shapes for the ruffles. This is the prototype, but I think DH had better start guarding his T-shirts. More photos ? Click here.
