Upcycled Toddler T-shirt Tutorial

Pile o' shirts?

Mmm, alliteration! Here's a quick, no-fuss tutorial for making a toddler tshirt out of your old tshirts. My mans is a tshirt addict and whenever he cleans his stash out, there's a few I snatch for our kid. All you need is a sewing machine, an old tshirt, and a tshirt to model from. Beware, my machine was being a little CRAZY and thus my sewing skills for this demo aren't the best because the whole time I was struggling to just get the pieces to sew together and next time I'll be more careful in the armpits (ugh). I made my son shirts out of a shirt that's too big for him so he can grow into these indie rock classics.

Find a shirt and lay it flat, all the seams aligned.

Lay your "example shirt" on top of the tshirt, aligning the necks and shoulder seams. Cut the bottom and side seams of the adult shirt, leaving 1/2" seam allowance. Cut the side seams all the way to the shoulder seam.

Ensure you have the same width across the shoulders (from the neckline).

Lay your toddler shirt flat and using the scrap bottom of your adult tee, cut lengths that match the width (plus seam allowance) of the toddler tee. Cut 2 (for two sleeves).

Open up your adult shirt. Line up centre length of the sleeve piece to the shoulder seam of the shirt. Pin right sides together. Using a medium sized zig-zag stitch, sew the sleeve and shirt together along the edge, using 1/2" seam. Repeat with other sleeve/side of shirt.

Open shirt up and look at how far you've come so far!

Fold shirt on itself, right side together. Align shoulder seams to each other, making sure your shirt is laying flat with no wrinkles, pleats, or puckers. Pin the inside together. Using zig zag, sew from edge of sleeve to the arm pit, turn, sew down to the bottom. Use 3/4" seam allowance. Repeat on other side. Trim excess seam selvedge. Note: make sure not to create pleats and tuckers in the arm pits. Go slow and carefully. 

Turn right side out and roll a hem (first fold in 1/2 inch, fold over another 1/2 , and sew using 1/2" seam allowance and straight stitch.

Turn right side out and press if you like!