Mickey Shirt Make-Over

We did a little thrift shopping at Salvation Army in Burnsville, MN.  It is a marvelous place.  I won't get all the way on top of my soap box, but I will tell you I have been disgusted at the lack of affordable thrift stores here in the mid-West.  Plain t-shirts can be as much as $20...USED!  One time one of those $20 used t-shirts was a JCPenny brand shirt....I am sure sold originally for $7.99.

Anyway, It is a favorite past time of mine to collect silly little shirts like these two and make them into something fun for my 6 year old daughter to wear.  She is extremely tall for her age and we have a really hard time finding clothes for her anymore.  By altering women's clothing to fit her child body, sometimes we make magic happen...and then there are all of the other times.

Anyway, I found this weird ruffle-sleeved women's muscle shirt for $2 on half price day, so for $1.  I can risk $1!  I took the shirt and just closed the armpits in a bit, then tapered the shirt out towards the bottom like a dress.  

Here is what it looked like after the 5 minute alteration... 

Adorable!  So sweet and feminine with just two little seam adjustments.  That one turned out so well I tried another.

This Mickey was even winking at me, like he was saying, "You can do it!"

First things first, cut off the neck cuff.

Since the back of shirts is generally higher than the front, I folded the shirt in half so the shoulder seams line up in the middle and the front is folded over the front, back of the shirt folded over the back. 

Slicey Slicey!

So easy.  Since the shirt is made from knit fabric, there is no need to be too fussy about raw edges.  I just folded over the fabric around the neck hole and sewed it to make casing for the thin elastic.

A safety pin in the 1/8" elastic does the trick so you can feed the elastic through the casing just made...

Until you come out the other side.  I just tie the two ends into a square knot after trying the shirt on my smiley little model.  I do recommend evenly distributing the shirt around the elastic, then stitching a little stitch, about where the shoulder seams are, so that the fabric does not bunch all in the front or back whilst crazy play is happening later down the road.

More winking..."You've Got This!" 

Must keep going...

These are the original sleeves.  I just wanted a little smaller opening, plus wanted to add a little feminine touch, so I shirred two rows on the top of each sleeve.  I had my model put the shirt on, then pinned where I thought the gather should start and stop, then set about sewing with elastic thread on my machine.

Zip-Zip

Done.  Does my little munchkin like her new shirt???

Judging by the sassy pose she took, I would say yes.

I also shirred up the back a bit to gather some of the extra fabric.

Emmers loved her shirt so much she wore it to school the next day.

Love it!  Best $1 shirt ever!  I must make more...