What do you do when you find yourself needing a fun striped shirt to wear with overalls? You find an old striped shirt that needs some help and refashion it into the perfect short sleeved shirt!

Because I’m Nice…

I recently let my little sister come over and shop my closet. I told her she could take anything she wanted as long as she promised to wear it a bunch. She was a bit apprehensive at first but I assured her it was no big deal because I could always make more of whatever she took. She took a few striped shirts so here I am…. Making a new one from this thrift store find.

I found this old black and white striped shirt at the thrift store. There’s no way I would have ever paid full price for this. The stripes don’t match up on the sides and the neckband is super wonky. I had no choice but to bring it home with me and help it look better. Refashions are super fun for me to do and ones like this I can usually get done in less than 1 hour. 

Let’s Get this Refashion Started!

Once I got it home I tried it on. It needed a little more shaping and short sleeves, because I live in the desert and long sleeves are a “NO GO.” I decided what length to cut the sleeves at and marked it with a pin. I cut them  to that length, took 1 inch off the hem and cut the neckband off. Then I took the sides and sleeves in a little bit for more shaping. 

A Bit Scrappy!

I found some black cotton jersey knit scraps in my stash and made sleeve bands and a neck band. To make the bands I simply measured the neck and sleeves openings and subtracted 15% so they would be smaller than the opening. Then I attached them to my shirt and hemmed it with a twin needle.

This shirt looks so much better now that the stripes match at the sides and that wonky neckband is gone. Once again I have a cute striped shirt to wear with my overalls or biker shorts. But if my sister wants this one I would give it to her too and simply make another shirt.  

Do you let family members shop your closet? Or is that a big NOPE? Let me know in the comments.

The pattern I used to help me with this refashion is the Iris Tee by Forget Me Not Patterns. I gave my sister one of my favorite Iris t-shirts so I definitely needed another one. Can’t find a good striped shirt to refashion? Girl Charlee is an online fabric store where I find some of my favorite striped fabric.

Hope you found this useful!

Happy Sewing,

Koe