One Of my Favorite patterns to Hack is the Blanc Tee from Blank Slate Patterns. You can get the Digital pattern for free when you purchase any of the Blank Slate  PDF Patterns. The reason I like it so much is that its just two pieces- a front and back – with endless options. Let your imagination run Wild! The Blanc Tee is the pattern that I used for this refashion.

I had bought this maxi Skirt about 10 years ago. It was one of my favorite things to wear at the time. For the Past 6 year or so, it has just been sitting in my closet. Rather than continue to let it collect dust I decided to upcycle it to something that I can get more use out of.

The first thing I did was cut down both side seams and cut the waist band off. That gave me three separate pieces of fabric to work with.  I folded one of the skirt pieces in half the long way, making sure to match the  big stripes on the opposite side.  I laid my  front pattern piece on the fabric to decided exactly how I wanted the shirt to look. Because the skirt had some accent stripes at the hem it gave me some fun possibilities. I wanted a more cropped shirt and I liked the look of the small stripes being at the top shoulder, rather than the bottom hem like the skirt originally was. I’ve sewn with this pattern enough to know how much I needed to shorten it which was 3 inches. Rather than cut it or make a new pattern I just folded it up at the bottom 3 inches. I also needed to fold the side of the pattern in by one inch to fit it on the fabric. This material is super stretchy so I knew it would be fine, but normally I wouldn’t have done that. Once I was satisfied with the placement I cut out the front piece.

I didn’t have much fabric to work with but I wanted to try and and match the stripes as best as I could. After I had the front piece cut out I situated the second half of the skirt the same way I did the first.  I laid the back pattern piece on it how I thought it should be.  Then, to check the stripe matching, I laid the front piece on top of the back piece to see if the stripes were all matching somewhat. Its hard to tell because of the other stripes, but it was almost perfect. So I went a head and cut the back piece out.

With right sides facing I sewed together the shoulder seams . Normally I would sew the side seams here too but I wanted to see how the shirt was looking. I laid it out on my cutting table, that’s the neck hole in the middle. I was pretty pleased and wanted to incorporate more stripes since I still had a bit of fabric left. So I used this opportunity to measure the armholes for an arm binding rather than just a hem. Adding that detail would help me use up the scraps and I thought it would be cuter than simply hemming the arm hole  like the pattern calls for.

I don’t have any shirts in my wardrobe with an arm binding right now, so I was pretty excited to add this detail. I cut two, 4 inch wide bands long enough to fit the armhole minus one inch and folded it in half the long way.

I attached them to the arm holes before I sewed the side seams shut, just because it was easier and sometimes I get lazy with my refashions. Once the bindings were attached, I sewed down the side seams and then hemmed the shirt 1/2 inch with a twin needle.

Lastly, I thought the small stripe fabric would look good for the neck binding and I had just enough left for it. I cut a two inch wide piece of fabric big enough to fit the neck hole minus one inch and sewed the short ends together to make a circle. Then I folded it in half and attached it to the neck hole making sure to disperse it evenly. If you need a better explanation on how to do neck bands or bindings you can find one on the Melly Sews Blog.

I still had the original tag from the waist of the skirt so I reattached it to the neck of the shirt when I sewed the neck binding on. And because I sewed this refashion with my serger it totally looks RTW!

 

Thats It! I totally love it! This refashion took me a little over and hour but could be done in less time. Pattern matching can be a little time consuming. I’ve made several dresses and shirts with The Blanc tee pattern. It’s just two pieces! I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a basic, simple t-shirt pattern.