Crazy braided tee refashion

Crazy braided tee refashion

• 4.07.2010

Whoo-hoo, this one's a little crazy!

I branched out of my usual ruffle-front routine to make this cute summery tee from a long-sleeved, ancient Gap Favorite Tee.

Want the tutorial?

• Start with a long-sleeved tee.  This one had been washed so many times it was getting short in the length and sleeves, and just looked tired.

• Cut off the sleeves in a raglan style.  Think of a classic baseball tee.  Cut the neck off, too.

(The more you trim off on the neck, the lower your shirt will be in the front.  I cut off a little more to make it a little lower in the front, but didn't change the back.)

• Cut off the hem and serging on the sleeves.

• Cut the sleeves into strips about 1.5" wide, depending on how substantial you want your braid trim to look.  Mine ended up pretty thick but you could make a more delicate-looking one if your pieces were like .5" wide.

• You'll need six strips total to go all the way around your neck, so cut and then sew the pieces together and press.  You'll end up with three loooong pieces 1.5" wide.  Press the seams open.

• Put the three pieces together at one end (I used the foot of a stool to keep it down) and braid.

• Now, back to the shirt.  Turn the hem under twice and sew the raglan sleeve opening down.  I used a zig-zag stitch, which worked really well to keep it from rolling or looking home-made.

• Try on the tee and hold up the braid, to see how much braid you'll need.

• Sew the braid together to form a circle.  It will be kind of ugly.

• Use a scrap from the sleeves and wrap it around the ugly part where the seam is.  Hand-sew it down.

• No pics of this part.  Now, center the braid piece on the top (I marked the center front and back of the shirt with snips) and hand-sew it down.

That's it!

So summery!  And eco-friendly too.  Don't you have some long-sleeved boring tees in your closet?