Refashion: DIY Upcycle Turtleneck into Long Sleeve T-shirt with Tribal Print

I spied the tribal print blouse at the thrift store and fell in love with the colors and pattern. What I didn’t love was the baby doll silhouette. While it had great hanger appeal, the blouse made me look pregnant when I tried it on. I decided it would make a great refashion project and found a matching turtleneck to restyle it into a long sleeve t-shirt.

Here’s a closeup of the print.

I chopped up the turtleneck into pieces. It was a medium size shirt I had to cut down into a smaller size. The safety pin marks the cut line where I will sew on the printed fabric.

I chopped up the printed blouse. The bottom of the blouse will be the front of the remade T-shirt and the upper part will be recycled into bias binding to finish the neckline.

I cut off the front of the turtleneck that will be replaced with the printed fabric.

Using the blue piece as a pattern, I cut the printed fabric down to the same length and added a seam allowance.

I wanted to emphasize the blousiness of the printed fabric by creating some subtle gathers. It’s really hard to see in this picture, but I hand sewed a short length of running stitches in black thread. Then I pulled it to create gathers.

I serged the printed fabric to the upper part of the turtleneck. It’s easier to see the gathers in this picture.

Using the chopped-off front piece of the turtleneck as a pattern, I shaped the armholes and sides.

I serged the sides of the bodice.

I attached the sleeves by sticking it in the bodice right side out and pinned it in place.

Then I serged the sleeve. Repeat on the other side.

To finish the neckline, I made a 2″ bias binding strip from the upper part of the printed blouse. I cut out a new neckline so the shirt would be easy to pull over my head (I forgot to take a picture of this step).