Shirt Conversion

This week I think I went a little nutty in the craft room. I found a shirt online that I liked, but it's price was a bit steep and I wasn't sure where to go looking for it in a department store. Immediately my brain started contemplating how such a piece was put together, but as I didn't have a pattern for it, I saved its picture on my phone for another day and moved on to other things. A few days later I started thinking about the shirt again, so I decided to take a trip to my local thrift store to see if I could find anything close. Unfortunately, I found nothing even remotely like it. What I did find was a baby pink long sleeved shirt that was slightly baggy on me in a stretchy material that just begged to be modified. For $5, I left the store full of hope and headed home. What I turned it into was something else entirely.

I started by removing the sleeves and cutting them open at the seams, then sewing them together at the wrists. This would be in the back, and would wrap around my shoulders, then cross in the front and attach back at the side shirt seams under the arms. I ended up having just enough material to stretch to the seams. I ended up gathering the wide part of the sleeve material (what used to be the shoulder) and opening the side seam of the shirt at the under arm, then sewing it back together with the gathered shoulder material between the front and back layers of the shirt.

 

Then I added a thin elastic strip to the side seam of the shirt, giving it a small scrunch that helped the bulk of the shirt match the criss-cross crunch over the chest. After that, it was just a matter of hemming all the raw edges and making sure everything laid right. All in all it took me about 12 hours to figure out how to do, and 4 or 5 to actually put together. Not bad for a weekend project!

Next time I think I'll need more material to stretch across the chest, so that instead of meeting at the underarms, the material would meet back at its starting point at the center back. That way the criss-cross section would only pull on itself, rather than on the sides of the shirt, which would help it keep its shape and prevent the shirt from stretching forward. It wouldn't be that difficult to convert a tube top into something similar, or to make a tube top shape and use a long strip of fabric for the cross section. All in all, though, I'm pretty happy with it!!

The Unique Boutique - Beginnings

Welcome to the Unique Boutique! Everything posted to this blog has been custom made by me, though design and inspiration for some of the projects may have come from a little bit of everywhere. Please feel free to look around, and if you see anything you like, let me know! I always enjoy getting feedback.

I first learned to sew when I was in the fifth grade. My mother had told me how she used to make her own clothes when she was in high school, and I had always admired her ability to make costumes and fix my torn pants or sew buttons back on. So when she felt I was old enough, she began to teach me what she knew. It started out as something small and simple; she showed me how to make a skirt with an elastic waistband, then bought a beginners sewing book kit that gave instructions for small projects like a bookmark and a stuffed strawberry for my sewing pins. That was enough to get me hooked, and from then on, I looked for a sewing project whenever I could. 

Things really got serious for me when I was in high school. I joined a drama class, and we had to find and/or make our own costumes for our performances. So, with some help from my mom, I began using the sewing machine on a regular basis. By the time I graduated high school, my mother had taught me pretty much everything she knew about sewing. 

But I wasn't finished yet. I could make entire projects all on my own, but it wasn't good enough. I wanted to learn more. Unfortunately, I became busy with college, which cut back my time for creative projects entirely. Then life got even crazier as I started working, and then got married. I was lucky enough to have a friend who knew me well and gave me a sewing machine as a wedding present, which encouraged me to get back into sewing and the creative side of myself. 

That's when things really got going. As I knew how to find fabric inexpensively and had spent much of my high school and college years collecting patterns, I now had no excuse not to put my skills to work. I started making clothes for myself: a dress here and there, or a shirt to wear to work. Once my coworkers caught wind of my abilities, they asked me to make things for them. My hobby was creating an occasional business transaction! It was more than I could have imagined possible. 

Recently I have been devoting more and more time to my sewing, even teaching friends the basics of sewing that my mother once taught me. And more and more my friends and coworkers have been encouraging me to take it further, to show my work in a public arena and be the best that I can be. So partially to appease them and partially to have an easily accessible place to show what I have done, I created this blog. With it I hope to show a growing and transitioning talent, to teach others as best I can, and to help those who are looking for a little creative inspiration of their own find something they can grow from themselves. 

Enjoy!