T-Shirt to Tunic

Your basic souvenir t-shirt...

How many of us have "tube" style (i.e., no side seam) t-shirts that we don't wear because the fit isn't the most flattering?

For me, I find that some Ts are cut too long, meaning that they fit snugly around my hips, with the result that sitting in them neither looks nor feels comfortable.

A second issue for me is sleeve length. Many Ts simply have "short" sleeves that are also, in effect, too long. A sleeve length that stops just above the elbow is not a great look.

Take this one that I bought in PV during our recent vacation.

Before...

It's made from a heavier weight cotton than most souvenir Ts and I liked the colour. (At $2.50 USD, it was also somewhat of a bargain.) But it suffers from both problems: the body and the sleeves are longer than optimal.

So I decided to modify it.

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The sleeves are an easy fix. All that's needed is to roll up the ends a couple of times and run a line of stitching around them. I can then wear the length as is or cuff it up once more for a sportier look.

Roll up sleeves and sew...

To fix the body length issue, one could simply slice off the hem and redo it. However, on a printed T, that option would usually impact the design. (Didn't want to slice off the dolphin tail.)

In my case, I was looking to convert this into a pseudo tunic. With that in mind, I figured a six or seven inch slit on both sides would accomplish what I was looking for in terms of freedom of movement while keeping the original length.

Next, I rounded off the corners of the hem.

Cut side slits and round off corners...

Then it was back to the sewing machine, where I zig-zagged stitched the raw edges.

Zig-zag stitch raw edges to finish...

The jersey fabric curled a bit underneath as I sewed, but that was fine with me. It is still just a t-shirt, not formal wear.

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And here is the final look. (Worn with the sleeves rolled up once more.)

After...

As you may already know, there are a lot of t-shirt refashioning tutorials to be found online. Many of them turn the shirt into something entirely different, which is terrific if that's what you want. Sometimes, though, you'd just like the T to fit your own tastes a bit more, and that's what this was.

In the end, I still wanted the t-shirt to be its essential self.