Tie-front tee DIY!

So when we were in Holland this April, I wanted to get a tshirt. Unfortunately, the place where I bought mine had the shirts folded into plastic packages, and I couldn't open them to see how big the tshirts were.

So when I finally bought and opened the package, the shirt was waaaay too big.

Boo.

But! I decided I could fix it with a restyle, so s'all good! :)

And yes, it has taken me six months to get around to it.

Whatever.

Here's the Before & After! 

(These pics were only taken 1 day apart. And yes, that *is* snow. In October. Welcome to Minnesota.)

I recently found this shirt at a second hand store, and decided to use it as my inspiration:

Want to make your own tie-front shirt? Here's how I did it!

I used a white colored pencil (finally! A use for those things!) to draw out the shape I wanted, using a ruler to make sure it was even and centered.

And then: scary part! Snip snip. 

Then I turned the shirt inside out, folded over the raw edges, pinned and sewed all the way around.

For the collar I just cut off the existing one, and pinned and sewed the raw edge.

While the shirt was inside out, I sewed up the sides to take them in a bit. And then I sewed the opening of the sleeve a little smaller, giving it that "bat-wing" shape which is so popular. And finally I cut off the extra fabric.

And wa-la! My inspiration, and my finished product:

Now I can finally wear my souvenir for more than pjs! Yay!

Have you ever restyled something?