Saturday, November 14, 2009

Crewcuts inspired top

I have been drooling over the clothes at Crewcuts, and decided it was finally time to just make something inspired by their line.

I don't have the budget for this gorgeous cashmere shirt for either of my girls, so here is my thrift store waffle shirt take on it. Sorry the picture quality is so bad, tonight after they went to bed was the only time I had with no kid on the sewing chair with me.
I used an existing shirt of Bug's for the pattern - I just cut it long, as I wanted this to be a tunic. Cut off the hem close to the seam, keeping it intact. This will become the neck ruffle. Cut the arms from the arms, and from the top of the arms, you will need two 4 x 3" squares for the pockets. It was easy to get all of the pieces from a woman's medium to make a 3T. You will also need a 1" piece for the hem, I just cut it right above where I cut them hem off. That somehow escaped the picture.
Right sides together, sew the shirt body and arms. I did a straight seam plus a zig-zag, as this will be worn by a very active toddler. Since I used the existing sleeve hem, I skipped hemming them. Also sew the neck together.
With right sides together, sew sleeves in. I use lots of pins.
It will now look something like this: At this point, I decided on pocket placement. (Sorry no picture) I did fold the pocket pieces down one inch and sew before I attached them, so the top had a clean line. I opted to just sew the pocket right on without turning it under, which will work for this fabric. I might sew the pockets on before I sew the body together next time. Just a thought.
Now for the ruffle... I wanted a little more ruffling on the front, and a little less on the back. To achieve this, I found the center of the ruffle and pinned it to the center of the shirt, and same with the back. I put the side seams from the hem more forward than the shoulder seam, so I had more fabric in front.
Instead of a gather stitch, I just pinned it in place and shoved it through the machine. I have found that my seam ripper is the perfect size to fit under the foot and help hold the fabric. Sew all the way around twice. Again, it's going to be worn by a toddler.

I also wanted it to stay close to the existing collar, so I did a quick whip stitch and attached the new ruffle neckline to the top of the old collar. For the hem, I took my 1" pieces of fabric and folded it over the bottom of the shirt. Again, lots of pins. I ran this straight through the machine, again I didn't fold it over. I like the look.... and you're finished! This really took no time at all, and it was only $2!
Bug loves it, and I love how it looks on her!


Cheese!

3 comments:

  1. SOO adorable! love it! wish i'd grabbed that thermal from the dollar store the other day now, hehe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love it! Thanks for writing the tutorial! Now I'm off to raid my daughter's poor closet for a victim... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. OH MY GOSH! You are so amazingly crafty! I LOVE it! Now I have to go raid Goodwill and look for a thermal, you make it look MUCH cuter than the crewcut, and your daughter looks absolutely ADORABLE in it!
    Great job!

    ReplyDelete