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).
I folded the bias binding in half and serged it to the neckline. I folded it around the edge and whip stitched it down from the back.
I like how the pattern of the tribal print pops against the solid blue. What do you think of the final product?
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thanks, what a great refashion. I see how necessary it is to take the sleeves off. I would have not done that. It would have been a fail!
Que buena idea
A really creative idea. You did a great job. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the love!
This is so great! That problem of the unflattering babydoll tops in great fabrics is so annoying. Wrong size turtlenecks in wonderful colors too.
And I have some beautiful Indonesian fabrics from my travels which might be too much as a whole garment.
I haven’t cut and joined two thrifted garments yet even though i’ve sewn whole ones for decades. Maybe this will get me going.
Thank Peggy. Mixing 2 thrifted garments is one of my favorite upcycling techniques. I usually have a beautiful print as the center of attention and a secondary garment to “extend” the hero print. Comes in quite handy when you run short of your primary fabric.