Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Wednesday Sewing - Easy Child's Tiered Summer Top


This is soooo easy!  It took me about 40 minutes to think about how to do this and then get it made - and that includes stopping to take pictures at each step!  I repurposed this from a child's skirt, but if you used an adult sized skirt I don't see why it wouldn't work to make an adult sized shirt.  I know I'm planning on looking for one the next time I'm at the thrift stores so I can make one of these for me!

Materials:
*tiered skirt - these are those skirts that are gathered and have 3 or 4 tiers of fabric.  They're usually made from knits.
*a T-shirt that fits the child you're making the shirt for - you'll just use it for a pattern and won't harm it in anyway
*chalk

1. Spread the skirt out on a large, flat area.  Lay the T-shirt on top, putting the bottom of the shirt at the bottom of the skirt.


2.  Using chalk, trace along the sides of the seams.  Since this won't have sleeves, make your side marks about 1/2 inch to 1 inch longer than the T-shirt side seams to avoid having "peek-a-boo" arm holes.  At the top of the shirt, mark the shoulders, stopping at where the ribbing on the shirt begins.  Pull back the shirt and make a mark on the neckline at the bottom of the ribbing.  If you want a higher neckline, make your shoulder seam marks on the inside of the ribbing.  My chalk marks didn't show up at all in the photos I took, so I've remarked them in white.


3.  With your chalk, draw in the rest of the neckline.  Don't get caught up in making it perfectly symmetrical on both sides - we'll fix that later.


4.  Draw in one of the armholes.


5.  Cut 1/2 inch outside of your side seam lines.


6.  Cut 1/4 inch outside of your underarm line and 1/2 inch outside of one shoulder seam.


7.  Fold the skirt in half, matching the shoulder seams, side seams, and underarms.


8.  Using the lines you already cut as a guide, cut the other underarm and shoulder out.  Cut 1/4 inch outside of your neckline chalk mark.


9.  Open your fabric up and you should have a double layer that looks like this.


10.  Pin front to back at shoulder seams, right sides together, and and sew a 1/2 inch seam.


11.  Turn neck edge under 1/4 inch (to the inside) and top sew around the outside of the neckline.  Do the same with each underarm.


12.  Pin sides together and sew in a 1/2 inch seam.


13.  And you have a tiered summer shirt!  If you want to make it more of a swingy shirt, you can taper out the side seams a bit more than T-shirt seams usually are. 


 And here's little c modeling - and foraging for mint!


Happy Creating!  Deborah

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