Make It Work

I have long since given up on promotional or logo tees. More often than not, they are boxy and oversized. So when my husband came home with the t-shirts we were supposed to wear for an upcoming 5K run/walk I wasn't too hopeful. As expected, the shirt was too big on me.

But it was a  nice shirt made of moisture wicking polyester, perfect for athletic activities and workouts. So rather than store it with the rest of unwearable tees, I decided to do something about it and in the words of Tim Gunn from Project Runway "make it work."

I turned the tee shirt inside out and laid it as flat as possible.

I marked the center of the front at the neck opening and the lower hem.

I laid the front pattern piece from one of my favorite tee shirt patterns aligning the center foldline of the pattern with the center of the shirt. An alternative would be to use a favorite tee as pattern. 

Using a tracing paper and wheel, I marked the new side seams on the shirt following the pattern. 

I pinned front to back along the traced seamline. 

This is what it looked like after marking the new side seams.

I basted the side seam and tried it on to make sure the fit was right.

I also cut off the entire sleeve leaving only an inch for hem. I decided an extended sleeve was the easiest way to go.

I used serger machine to sew the side seams.

Now time for the sleeves or what was left of it!

I pinned the remaining one inch of the sleeve to the inside using a narrow hem as shown below.

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Initially I tried using the coverstitch to sew the sleeve hem but I could not

get the proper settings to avoid tunneling. So with the regular sewing machine,

I just used a narrow and small zigzag stitch. 

For the bottom hem, I had better luck with the settings of the coverstitch. I took off about 1 1/2 inch from the original length.

And here's the finished tee. 

I like it better. As for the upcoming 5K, that's another story!