T-shirt refashion

I am really excited to tell you about this one! I have been really nervous about attempting to make clothes in the past because I can be such a perfectionist that I get frustrated and stop working on something if it doesn't go the way I planned. Somehow, this turned out just how I planned!

I have a bag of clothes I've been meaning to give away to Goodwill. They've been sitting in my closet for about 4 months now (procrastination much?) After finding this "Easy Breezy Tank" tutorial on Craftiness is Not Optional, it looked like something I could try. Having never made clothes before, I was feeling adventurous and up to the challenge. After digging around, I found one t-shirt in my clothes bag that I thought would work.

And that's how I turned this:

into this:

Since I didn't have a template to go off of, I simply took one of my daughter's 18-month old tank tops and laid it on top of the green t-shirt. Then, I traced around it with disappearing ink (adding an extra 1/4 inch on all sides for seam allowance) and pinned the shirt so that I could easily cut around it, giving me my front and back pieces. I followed the tutorial above for the most part, but I didn't make the elastic neckline. Instead, I made my own bias tape (just as the tutorial explains how to do for the straps) and lined the front and back of the neck with it.

After finishing sewing and lining the shirt, it didn't seem quite finished. I knew I wanted to add an embellishment to it, so I decided to make a cute flower decal, but I didn't want it to be typical. I started by tracing a pattern for a petal. I cut out 8 flower petals and lined them up in pairs, overlapping the edges some. I then took a needle and thread and sewed all of them together by sewing several small stitches on the bottom (flat part) of each petal. After they were all joined together, I pulled the thread and all of them bunched up nicely. Then, join the ends of the end 2 petals by making a circle, and make a couple of stitches to join the 2, like this:

From there, I pinned the flower to the tank top, sewed around the entire perimeter, then added a large button in the middle to finish it, and voila! Instant cute baby tank! The entire project probably took me about 4 hours, but it took a little longer with constant interruptions thanks to bedtime and an active toddler. I am so happy with how this turned out though. I will never throw another t-shirt out again!