How to cut up baggy shirts into wearable shirts

April 1, 11:50 AMOrlando Arts and Crafts ExaminerEmily Church

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Everyone has those baggy shirts that they get from special events, from relatives coming back from vacation, from school clubs, and other such places. The question is what do you do to turn those baggy shirts that would otherwise undoubtedly end up in the bottom of your dresser drawer until you rummage for a shirt to paint the house in or dye your hair in into something that you would actually wear in public. The answer it simple - cut it up and personalize it with your own kind of style and your own unique shape.

Materials Needed:

1. Baggy shirt
2. Another shirt with same size
3. Gel pen or White colored pencil
4. Scissors

 

Step #1

Lay the baggy shirt on a flat surface and then lay the smaller shirt on top of it. Be careful to line up the smaller shirt to the shoulders of the baggy shirt - do not worry if they do not match up perfectly or if they don't match up to the collar.

 

Step #2

Trace the smaller shirt's shape onto the larger one using the gel pen or white colored pencil. Don't worry if you mark somewhere unintentionally or need to retrace because both substances come free in the wash. If you're afraid you'll confuse the lines water will easily remove the old marks. You'll notice that often the baggy shirt is longer than your template shirt - just extend the lines down straight from the last point.

 

Step #3

Cut along the lines of the drawn sleeve, but only the sleeves, do not cut along hte length of the shirt.

 

Step #4

Cut a straight line from the point where you left off for the sleeve to the end of the original baggy sleeve. Next cut the rest of the original sleeve off to form a nice square space from the end of the desired sleeve.

 

Step #5

Next cut lines from the outside of the shirt to the line you drew to indicate how tight you want the shirt. Keep cutting these slits about a half-inch apart until you get to the top and do the same to both sides.

 

 

Step #6

Cutting the strips created loops along the side, cut the loop and then tie the two pieces into a knot as you go so you don't confuse which strips belong to which knot.

 

 

Step #7

After you have finished all the knotting you'll notice there's a lot of excess fabric. You can string beads on and then knot the ends or you can cut them about an inch from the knots and tie in ribbon or you can just cut them an inch from the knot and leave them plain.

 

 

Step #8

While this is not included in this example, there are tons of other options to additionally decorate your shirt like hot gluing ribbon along the seams of the shoulders, fabric glitter paint on parts of the design, sew on beads in a pattern along neck or sleeve, or paint your name on the back. Finally, before trying on your shirt put both arms inside the bottom end and stretch it because teh fabric is going to be tight before you pull it over your head.