Father-in-law needed some larger T-shirts, which meant a pile of too-small ones were destined for the charity shop – until I saw several holes in them.
I don’t know about you, but anything which is slightly damaged goes in the clothes recycle bin rather than the charity shop as I know lots of people are unable to make small repairs.
As the holes could either be cut around or patched, I decided to have a go at refashioning them into T-shirts for The Boys.
They were all polo-style shirts and the piqué fabric was good quality with plenty of wear in it yet.
Using a well-fitting T-shirt from No.3 Son’s drawer, I cut around the basic outline from the body of the shirt, cutting the sleeves from the original sleeves.
After sewing the shoulder seams, the sleeves were set in and the raw edges overlocked, then I sewed the side seams (right sides together) in one continuous seam from the sleeve hem to the bottom edge.
The raw edges of the seams and the hems were overlocked, then the hems were top stitched in place.
The side seams were reinforced at the bottom with some decorative stitching.
For the collar, I cut off a strip from the original polo collar, sewed the short edges to make a circle…..
….and stitched it to the neckline right sides together, finishing with some more top stitching.
Then to deal with the hole in the middle of the back….
I cut a square of left over fabric (about an inch larger than the hole all around) and pinned it to the inside over the hole.
Working from the right side, I used this stitch on my sewing machine (combined with a stitch length of less than one) to completely fill in the hole.
The repair is virtually invisible on the outside.
The inside looks like this: –
Trim close to the stitching for a neat finish.
No.3 Son was excited with his ‘new’ T-shirt!
I was just pleased to be able to make another wearable item from something which would otherwise have been discarded.
Now, onto the other two….
May 11, 2015 at 6:04 pm
Love the way you’ve changed the neck. And well done keeping it out of landfill. Look forward to the refashioning of the other two.
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May 11, 2015 at 6:56 pm
I thought I might swap sleeves on the other two to make them a bit more interesting. Up cycling makes you feel very virtuous, doesn’t it?
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May 11, 2015 at 6:59 pm
It certainly does 🙂 But I’m afraid I could do so much more. Am working on it.
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May 11, 2015 at 7:02 pm
I’m currently working on an imaginative way of upcycling old towels after I bought new ones for the whole family. Thinking I might dye them and make beach hooded towels for The Boys.
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May 12, 2015 at 11:00 am
Good idea. Mr Hicks, our dog, always gets ours. Mind, some days I look at his and realise they’re in better nick than ours!
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May 11, 2015 at 6:07 pm
That’s brilliant! Very inspiring 🙂
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May 11, 2015 at 6:57 pm
Thank you – anything to inspire others to keep things out of landfill:)
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May 11, 2015 at 6:40 pm
You have made a fantastic job of that! Your son looks so pleased 🙂 I am doing a spot of up cycling/repurposing at the moment too, hopefully I will be ready to post later this week. X
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May 11, 2015 at 6:54 pm
Thank you, he loves to get surprised with new clothes just for him as he’s so used to getting his brother’s hand-me-downs:)
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May 11, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Ah, bless him, I was the second child so I know how much it means to him😊
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May 11, 2015 at 7:15 pm
A very useful post! I’m very good at keeping clothes for a long time but once they get holes in them I normally throw them away. Thanks for showing me what I should be doing!
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May 11, 2015 at 7:52 pm
Looking good, the shirt hole looked like an easy fix.
http://www.freckledfashionista.wordpress.com
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May 11, 2015 at 7:54 pm
It is easy – when you know how! I have saved many a garment using this technique:)
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May 11, 2015 at 7:52 pm
Looking good, the shirt hole looked like an easy fix.
http://www.freckledfashionista.wordpress.com
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May 11, 2015 at 7:56 pm
This is great, I especially like how you did the collar. I hope your father-in-law is happy!
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May 11, 2015 at 8:29 pm
It was the simplest way to do the collar. We bought FIL new shirts already – he’s in a nursing home:)
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May 11, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Thanks for the detailed collar instructions. Collars are still a bit of a mystery to me.
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May 11, 2015 at 8:31 pm
This was just a use-what-I-had invention, but it worked fine as a collar. Glad it was useful:)
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May 11, 2015 at 10:04 pm
This is amazing & so green! Upcycled is an understatement! Definite success and so highly preferable to landfill 🙂
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May 12, 2015 at 9:31 am
They were too good to discard and the rate at which The Boys get through clothes at this age is incredible!
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May 11, 2015 at 10:43 pm
A brilliant save and a job very well done, not to mention a very happy son 😉
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May 12, 2015 at 9:32 am
Boys love getting new clothes too and Grandad approved of the conversion, so success all round I reckon:)
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May 11, 2015 at 11:15 pm
Fabulous! You have every right to be feeling extremely virtuous! I love recycling/upcycling projects and this is one of the best I’ve seen! Well done you! 🙂 xo
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May 12, 2015 at 9:35 am
It was true upcycling, this one, as it had already been put in the rag pile. It will get plenty more wear and, if he grows out of it before any more holes appear, can probably go to the charity shop instead of landfill after all:)
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May 12, 2015 at 6:55 am
Another lesson learnt! Great post!! ❤ ❤ ❤
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May 12, 2015 at 7:54 am
Great refashion! Like how you’ve reused the edge of the collar – we’ve loads of old golfing tops and I’d not thought to use the old collars. Thanks! 😀
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May 12, 2015 at 9:36 am
They work a treat as one edge is already finished and it acts as stretch bias binding really.
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May 12, 2015 at 12:35 pm
Great post! One of the best up-cycles I’ve seen!
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May 12, 2015 at 1:19 pm
Thanks Lucie, it was a truly ‘green’ make:)
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May 12, 2015 at 1:22 pm
What a fantastic idea and a(nother) great tutorial! Thanks for sharing! Marianne xx
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May 12, 2015 at 5:20 pm
You’re welcome – always glad to share recycling ideas:)
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May 12, 2015 at 9:30 pm
Such a great idea! I’ll definitely be saving my husband’a discarded tops after seeing this 🙂
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