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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Little Girls Game Day Shirt Refashioned

Did you ever wonder why they almost never make cute game day jerseys for women and girls that are a little bit stylish?
We are in Alabama so SEC football is really big, right?  Well so is dressing for game day.  If you belong to a sorority you will be wearing a dress and heels.  If you are a mom you might tone it down a bit.  If you are a little girl you will be wearing either a manufactured cheerleader outfit (god forbid!), a smocked bishop dress representing your team or an otherwise custom made little number.
I always preferred the custom made number.  Since I have two girls I have made probably 11 outfits, one for every year and each girl.
And since my oldest is 8 I am running into a bit of a problem coming up with stylish outfits for her to wear.  It's almost like she is ready for something close to what I would wear.  
Well, I have been wanting to refashion something new forever now so I finally did it.  I found an Alabama jersey of mine that got too small in the dryer but is still a little big for my 8 yr. old.  She has been wearing it to bed but now she can wear it to school on Fridays!
I cut off the sleeves, refashioned them into puffed cap sleeves and took in the side seams.
Then I cut the bottom off to the proper length and used that piece for the neckline.  I cut off the existing ribbed edge around the neck.  Then I shirred the leftover bottom piece using elastic thread in the bobbin, and sewed it around the neckline for a cute little ruffle.
She went to bed and I just finished it, so I can't get her to model it until maybe after school and gymnastics tomorrow.
Here's how it was done:
This is the shirt before we started. 
Then I took a shirt of my daughter's that fits and laid it on top to copy.
I make markings for the side seams on the grey shirt. Then laid the sleeves on top of the cut off ones to 
make markings on those to copy.
 
I gathered the sleeves using a long stitch length and low tension around the top of the sleeves, then drawing up the bobbin thread to gather.  Putting right sides together insert the sleeve into the sleeve opening and pin.  Then stitch around and it is done. If this seems confusing you can get out a shirt of your own, turn it inside out and then stuff the sleeve back inside of the opening and that's this step here.


So I then took the leftover piece cut off from the bottom and shirred it with elastic bobbin thread in the machine.  It didn't gather too too much but that's okay because I didn't really have enough for a lot of ruffling anyway.  I cut the ribbed neckline off and sewed the ruffle piece on top maybe a quarter inch from the very edge of the cut neckline.
 
Much cuter than before! And she will love it that it no longer has a scratchy tag inside.
Like me she looks good in grey, so I wanted to refashion this one especially.
Tomorrow I will try to get her to model it.

2 comments:

Melissa @ The Littlest Lobo said...

Susan, That is so adorable! I'm jealous; will you make one for me? That was such a creative way to restyle that t-shirt. Even though I don't sew I was able to follow your directions. Great Job! Can't wait to see Sara wearing it!

The Andersons said...

i got her pjs at old navy-i love them!! also, do you ever do trunk shows?? i love your store. let me know if you would be interested.