On a warmer day a few weeks ago, Jamie Frevele of BoingBoing and I sat down with my sewing machine, a couple pairs of sharp scissors, and Jamie’s stash of T-shirts (she has some amazingly iconic ones in there — Rosie the Riveter, Captain America, the New York City tee that John Lennon was famously photographed wearing — sleeves cut off — in New York in 1974 by Bob Gruen) to have a little Tee Party. And a party it was…
Without further ado, here’s how to cut the perfect neckline, and how to transform that old boxy tee into a fresh ‘n’ foxy tank top in T-minus 60 seconds (yes, we’re rife with T-shirt puns up in here). Here’s how it all went down, no-sew style:
For an additional tutorial (bonus!) on how to easily re-size a T-shirt with two easy seams — click through to see Jamie’s (@jamielikesthis) step-by-step photos of how we transformed her iconic New York City tee from this:
Into this:
The T-shirt (à la John Lennon) is boxy no longer!
Happy new T-shirt to Jamie, happy birthday to John Lennon (today would have been number 72), and happy T-shirt refashioning to you all!
Tags: #johnlennon, boingboing, Happy Birthday John Lennon, jamie frevele, refashion a T-shirt, T-shirt jam session, T-shirt surgery, T-shirt transformation
[ Posted on October 9th, 2012 ]
Hey Megan, good video–you’re always so cheerful. 🙂 Can the next tutorial be for Halloween ideas? I came up with one myself yesterday. I’m planning on dressing as a blue sky for Halloween, so for the sun, I made a variation on the no-sew mohawk hat. I started with a yellow T-shirt, and measured and sketched the top part of the “mushroom” shape described in the instructions for the mohawk hat, and then cut it out, measured and cut the holes, and added the fringe, which gave me the same mohawk hat, minus the braided straps. The only difference is, this hat is designed to be worn “sideways,” so the fringe sort of looks like the rays of the sun.
Thanks, Emily! And yes, definitely trying to get some more good Halloween projects up. Love your blue sky costume idea!