Turning A T-shirt Into A Cardigan

  • Difficulty Rating: Beginner
Tags

Beginner, Fabric, How-To-Projects, Inspirational Articles, Lisa Storms, Machine sewing, Thread,

Tools used:

Cutting Mat 18x24

Cutting Mat (18" x 24")

Fabric Cutting Set 3-piece

3 Piece Rotary Cutting Set

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Turning A T-shirt Into A Cardigan

I am participating in this fun challenge for National Craft Month and challenge you to do the same.

Create something using a rotary cutter, one yard of fabric, sewing machine (or hand sew), thread, and a plain t-shirt.

With Spring arriving, the weather changes quickly here. It’s warm one minute and chilly the next. Layering here is a must. When cleaning out my daughter’s closet for Spring, she didn’t want to get rid of this pink tee I embellished for her long ago even though it no longer fits. It got me thinking how I could reuse it for something. We are cardigan-crazy in this house, so it didn’t take long to come up with a solution! Here’s how to make your own. Keep in mind you can alter your tee to any cardigan style you like. Cut the shirt shorter rounding the bottom and add ruffles along the bottom, add multiple rows of ruffles, etc.

1. Put on shirt and figure out how you want your lines to be. Tip: You can draw a physical line on one half of shirt with a disappearing fabric marker.

2. Fold shirt in half matching up seams as shown. Be absolutely sure that no extra fabric is tucked in the fold that could accidentally be cut. Being sure the shirt is folded exactly in half, cut along drawn line with rotary cutter on cutting mat (or free-hand it like I did).

cut the cardigan

3. Cut long strips of jersey fabric (or use another t-shirt to recycle) at desired width (mine are 1.5 inches) and sew long basting strip down center with no backstitching. I did this by hand because my sewing machine is just horrible

cut fabric strips

4. Evenly gather fabric along thread to ruffle.
5. Fold cut edge from t-shirt forward and pin ruffles on top. This was my cheating way to quickly cover the cut edge in case the cardigan flops open.

Cardigan pinned with ruffles

6. Machine sew ruffle along new opening, remove pins, and enjoy!

Supply List

One yard of fabric
Sewing machine
Thread
Plain t-shirt