T Shirt Rebuilds

I've been rebuilding/remodeling a lot of t-shirts; I almost never sew knits from scratch. 

I cut them down, I rearrange the parts, I cut out the stuff I like and sew it onto something that fits. And sometimes, I take it apart again.

This is the second shirt for this dragon and there will be a third

I do these shirts in batches. Which means that I've been sitting on a couple of these for awhile.

                       This is the standard remodel. The order of work is important.

 Shorten the shirt (fold up, pin, sew, THEN trim excess)

Fold up hem to taste

Stitch with wide overlocking sort of stitch

Trim off excess (try to keep excess in a loop)

 Bottom excess will be the new neck band (sew new collar line, stay tape the back neckline, THEN trim old collar off. Unless you like a reaaaaaallllly wide collar)(then fold over and stitch in the ditch from the front) (then trim it)

The bits so far

keep old seam tape (unpick its stitching)

old fabric from bottom is sewn around old collar for new collar

super narrow zig zag  stitch for stretch

1/4"/ 1 cm seam allowance

Join ends and sew together, then stitch over for continuous loop o neckfacing

NOW you can cut off the old collar

If you like a wide neckline for your shirt, you can cut off the old collar first. Believe me, it will grow very wide once you start cutting into that knit.

I kept the old seam tape out of the new seam...

and then it's sewn onto the back collar with a straight stitch

You can leave the seam tape out of it, but the new collar is going to be much wider than the old one. Which may be what you want.

Fold over and sew over seam allowance for new collar

Tiny zig zag in the ditch

NOW you can cut off the extra on the new collar

Sleeves are too long and too narrow at hem. No, I'm not retaking this photo. I look better blurry.

New Hem point

Match the hem distance marks sleeve to sleeve

Folded up and overlocked stitch

Second hem! Matching at top of shoulder seam

Better. I am out of focus all the time.

 If it's too broad or sagging off the shoulders, fold up on sleeve seam and sew a new seam at the cap. 

Bringing the sleeve cap up a 1/4/1cm - ish

The seam starts halfway up the sleeve, tapers out and tapers back on the other side, same distance down

And I am not taking any more photos of my blurry self today.

I mean, this bookstore is now closed.