20Jun | 2011
Upcycle: T-shirts to Summer vest tutorial
Posted by Joy | under Sewing . Tutorials . Upcycle | 45 Comments
I love to spice up dresses and jeans with long summer vest. In my last visit to Target I found a few very cool and super cheap items, I already showed you what I did with this dress. So now I wanted to show what I did with two T-shirts, I also used a little piece of lace for the back, but you don’t need to use it if you don’t like lace.
I really liked that the T-shirts were very soft and a thin material, thinner than normal cotton T-shirts. They cost me $3.00 each and both were XL. I am a Medium in shirts so I would recommend to use shirts two sizes bigger than what you normally wear so they are long enough and you end up with a pretty and full bottom.
Do you like it? Here is a tutorial for you =]
This was a very cool and not so complicated project, I recommend you to measure your back because in my case I ended up liking the back a little bit more tight than the full width of the back shirt, that is why I gather the extra material in the lace, as you can see on the pictures of the back, so before you finalize the back try it on and make sure you are comfortable with the width.
I love how it looks with a belt on, it’s almost like a very thin cardigan =]
I hope you all like it and please share a link or photo if you make it, I would love to see =]
Have a wonderful day!
* This tutorial is provided for personal, non-commercial use only.
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Joy Kelley is a Chilean Designer. Wife. Crafter. IMac dependent. Pattern lover. Color obsessed. The girl behind the HowJoyful Design Studio. Mrs Poodle at Weddingbee.
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Burda Style 
Wow! So clever
I love how it looks – thank you for sharing this idea!
Well done! Thanks for another get tutorial!
Joy!!!! Title type-o?! eeks~
hehe. you are FREAKING AMAZING!
can I have this? I NEED it Joy!!!
I love it!! I linked to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-summer-vest-refashioned-from-t-shirts/2011/06/21/
(link will go live Tuesday morning.)
–Anne
This is so cute!!! I have some extra tees and this is the perfect project, Thank you!
That is soooooo pretty! Now I need to find a shirt- I can’t wait to do this! Thanks tons, I’ll be spreading the word as well.
I absolutely love this!! Did you use a serger? I’m so nervous to even attempt clothes without one, but I don’t have one so all I do is drool over them!
I drool over sergers too! because I dont have one =[ I just folded the ends and use a zig-zag stitch
Gorgeous! Makes me want to go out and buy a sewing machine – and then learn how to use it!
I love this! I just have a question, I might have missed this in the tutorial, but how do you fix the shirt under the “cardigan”? I couldn’t find it in the above pictures, but I might have just skippe over it? It looks like it is just folded over for the top, but I’m not sure. Any help? Sorry to be a bother!
I just put a belt over the “cardigan” and that’s it. In the picture I used a short black strapless dress. Hope that helps =]
thank you so much for this. i love it! because shirts are sometimes so much more beautiful than some vests or cardigans!
OhMyGosh, this is adorable! You can count on me trying it when I have a day off! xD. Normally, I’m afraid of sewing projects, but the way you’ve laid everything out, it looks super easy.
This is so cute! What an easy and amazingly cute tutorial! Saw this on craft gawker!Thanks for sharing!
The Creative Muslimah @ http://www.thecreativemuslimah.blogspot.com
I love this! I’ve seen a few t-sirt tutorials but this is the cutest so far!
I love this!!! It is so cute! I am featuring this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com. Grab my “featured” button
How AWESOME!! I want one of these!!
I just wanted you to know I featured your post in my Toot {TuTe} Thursday roundup this week at tiarasandbowties.blogspot.com
Thank you so much for the feature Kim =]
a very helpful diy tutorial again! im amazed.. yes, very clever indeed but the outcome is really interesting ♥
I love this! I would love to feature it on Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle. Feel free to stop by and grab a featured button. Thanks!
Thank you so much Rachel, I will be checking your blog =]
Awesome Tutorial!! I featured you on A World Of Crafts:
http://aworldofcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/08/sew-stylish-vest-from-t-shirt.html
Love this and love how you do your tutorial. graphics are awesome!!
Hugs
Anne
Fabulous tutorial and I love this summer vest. Thank you for sharing.
So, is there some way to copy & paste this “pattern” to keep for later? I’m new to this blog, just joined today, so I don’t have a clue……
Thanks -
You are very clever. What a cute vest! Thanks for Sharing:)
Wow, how do you do those cool illustrations for the steps? Is that a program you use or are you just that awesome in Illustrator
I actually use Fireworks just because I am too used to it for graphics, it’s just like Illustrator tho. Since I optimize my images for web it’s faster to just draw there than do it on Illustrator and then export to fireworks =] Thank you for the compliments Heather!
This is such a cute little cover up! I will be making it ASAP!!!
This is awesome Joy! I did your “Pillow Case to top” tutorial over last weekend and it turned out really pretty. Although, because my hips are a little wider than my top I had to cut a couple of slits up the sides about 3 inches for some “breathing room”
But it looks great and my husband loves it too! I’m marking this one for my next non-blog project!
Hi Stephanie! I am so happy you made the pillowcase top and you and your husband liked it =] Let me know how it goes with this one, I’d love to see pics hehe =] I hope you have a lovely day!
How funny that your blog name should be my blog name’s sister! I love the tutorial, and really appreciate the graphics. Thank you
Love it! So adorable…now off to Target!
This is a wonderful idea… I have bunches of tees left over from a business venture… rather than giving away, I just might give this a try. Thanks
So happy you found it! I will love to see pics if you make it =]
This looks super cute and I’d love to make it, but i’m having a hard time reading the pattern since both shirts are stripped in the picture. I’m going to try it anyway though, for sure.
This T-Shirt idea is amazing, especially if you are losing weight and you have them to make into different vest. Thank You so much.
Great tutorial. I can’t wait to try this!
SOooO cool, i am going to make this for craft day with my gilfriends:)
What a fun project! Now I just need to find some old shirts to recycle! You should totally enter this project in Craftbaby’s ‘Upcycle Challenge’! http://www.craftbaby.com/contests/3/upcycle-it-sweeps
wow love it! its just that I don’t have a sewing machine yet…so I’ll be doing this by hand hope it works out >,<
This is so beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
This is such a cool refashion.