Altered T-Shirt Tutorial

Hi Fun On A Dime readers. I’m so happy to be here with you to share my altered t-shirt tutorial. My name is Deb and I write the blog Just Short of Crazy. I cover a little bit of everything from review and giveaways to travel and home and garden. I live in northern Michigan with my husband and daughter, one fat cat and an adorable malti-poo. Our son is all grown up and living on his own. Hard to believe I’m that old–lol. I’ve been frugal my entire life, as my family and friends can attest, and was thrilled to be invited to write for you all. I have seen a similar altered t-shirt tutorials on-line, but never thought I had the skills to complete it. Since I love pretty ruffly shirts, but I’m usually too cheap to buy them, I thought it was time to give it a go. Trust me on this, if you can cut and sew you can make this t-shirt and its a lot cuter than a plain ole t. Enjoy!

Altered T-Shirt Tutorial
Time Need: approximately 2 hours
Skills Needed: Sewing and cutting
Supplies Needed: 2 t-shirts, scissors, straight pins, sewing machine, thread

I bought 2 t-shirts of identical color. They were on clearance at Wal-Mart for $5/each and are long sleeved, but a short sleeved t-shirt works just as well.  I purchased one in my size and the other in the largest size I could find. In this case a 4x. I figured I might as well get as much fabric as possible for the same price.

The first thing you need to do is cut off the bottom hem:

Then cut the shirt into strips. I cut my strips 4″ wide. I would recommend cutting them about 2 1/2″ wide. My flowers ended up being much bigger than I really liked, but this is completely a personal preference. You could always cut them in a variety of sizes to mix it up.

Next, cut the seam out of your strip of fabric.

Fold your material in half as you cut out the flower shapes. I basically cut out a “B” shape. I folded over a bit of the strip, cut out a flower, repeated.

Then when I open it up it looks like this. The ragged edges are ok. I cleaned some of them up, but once they are on the shirt it all blends and adds depth.

Repeat many, many times. I cut out 40 flowers.

Put two flower cut outs together and, using your sewing machine, run a straight stitch down the center of the flowers. By sewing two flowers together you give them some dimension. You can do each flower individually or doubled up. After you sew them down the center, remove them from your sewing machine and gather them.

After all your flowers are gathered pin them to your shirt.

Keep pinning them on until you think you have enough. Try the t-shirt on being very careful to not stick yourself. Adjust flowers as necessary. You may want to add more or remove some…it’s completely up to you.

When the flowers are pinned how you like sew them to the shirt.  Sew each flower through the gather. When you are done clip any excess threads. If necessary, you can hand sew the flowers.

Wear your completed shirt with pride.