Simple Blue: How to Change a Summer T-shirt into a Winter T-shirt

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

How to Change a Summer T-shirt into a Winter T-shirt

We moved out of our old house in the summer. We were supposed to be between houses for a month. We had everything that wasn't neccessary put into storage. This included all the kid's winter clothes. You know how house buying goes. Summer turned to fall and we had a few really cold days - light snow even. My kids were still in shorts! We had plenty of winter clothes for them but they were in the very back of the storage unit. To help tide us over, I added a second sleeve under a t-shirt. At least the kid had sleeves now!

The shirt on the left is a shirt that had enough stains on it that we wouldn't be using it again. The sleeves aren't as noticable for stains and I also figured that if they were white, they would end out looking like that after one wear on this little boy anyway. The shirt on the right is the shirt I was enhancing.

I traced another sleeve, matching the hem of the sleeve to the hem of the shirt so that I wouldn't have to hem the new sleeve. (The sewing machine was also in the storage unit so the less sewing I had to do, the easier.) I also made sure that the top of the sleeve was similar to the top of the sleeve already on the shirt so it wouldn't be bunchy.

I flipped the "pattern sleeve" over and traced the other side. Now I have this ready to cut out. I cut through both layers so I had two sleeve pieces.

I matched right sides together on each sleeve and handsewed the side together. If I had a sewing machine, I would have used that.

You will notice that this sleeve has some of the print on it from the original shirt. I made sure that it would be covered by the sleeve of the summer shirt.

I kept the sleeve inside out and slipped it onto the shirt that was also inside out. I matched the edge of the white sleeve with the serging on the shirt sleeve. I made sure the seams that run down the arm matched and sewed the white sleeve to the serging.