An Easy DIY T-Shirt ReMake!

You know how it is so nice to slip on some comfy clothes at the end of the day…or to have comfy clothes on all day when you’re not feeling well?  T-shirts always seem to be a great go-to for just this comfy purpose.  But then, someone comes over unexpectedly and all of a sudden you’re caught wearing clothes that make you look even worse than you feel!  I usually don’t wear t-shirts for just this reason…they definitely give me a rumpled and baggy appearance.  Here is the solution!  Take that over-sized favorite t-shirt of yours and resize it!

Recently, I decided to try my hand at resizing a t-shirt that was too big for me into a shirt that I might actually wear.  My husband sent me a cool tutorial explaining how to do just that and I was ready to try!  I’d like to point out, right off the bat, that this was a fantastically calm, weekend afternoon project.  I am wearing comfy clothes!  This resizing a t-shirt project is a great DIY for any young adult cancer survivor or young adult illness sufferer out there!

I won’t share all of my instructions (though if you try the project and have questions, feel free to email me! mallory(at)lacunaloft(dot)com) but I’ll share a lot of my pictures of the process.  I started with an orange t-shirt and used one of my favorite, slouchy tee-s as the guide.

I had quite a bit of trouble visualizing how to pin on the sleeves properly and ended up with a t-shirt that was too small with inside-out sleeves 🙂  Maybe this will become fashionable in the future?  I’m going to sacrifice another shirt to add some side panels to the t-shirt below…maybe I can at least fix the sizing issue!

Next I tried a soft t-shirt that I like sleeping in.  I followed the same steps but finally figured out the sleeves…only to have them be too snug!  The second time around though, resizing a t-shirt was a whole lot easier.  (Moral of the story…don’t start with your favorite shirt)

To fix this sleeve problem, I decided to take it one step further and cut off the sleeves entirely.  So resizing a t-shirt turned into making a tank top.  🙂

Finally, after all of that trial (and error!) resizing a t-shirt worked!  The result isn’t upscale, by any means, but it fits better than before and is super comfortable.  I wore the new shirt later that day to help some friends move!  I’ve also slept in the shirt and worn it to the gym 🙂

Have you tried resizing a t-shirt?  Any tricks up your sleeve to help with the process?