Summer fashion

Hi all!
I'm Rebecca, your other contributor this summer. I want to start by introducing you to Iron Craft, a weekly crafting challenge, if you aren't already familiar. Every Thursday they post a challenge theme, and you have until the following Wednesday to make something meeting the theme. On that Wednesday you may post pictures to a joint Flickr pool and everyone's entries will be featured in round-up posts on the main Iron Craft page. The current theme is perfect for the Sew-Op's philosophy: use something for a craft that you would ordinarily throw away.

However, what I've really been thinking about lately is t-shirts. I don't actually wear them, but I have eight or ten stashed in a closet. The reason I don't wear most of them is that I don't like the fit - too boxy, too high a neckline, etc. Well, not too long ago I remade one into a tank top, and I expect it to get a lot more wear that way. I was lazy and just laid an existing tank top on top of it, lined up at the shoulders, and cut around it with a wide margin for the seam allowance (especially important because the tank top was quite fitted and the t-shirt had a very large picture on the front that meant it stretched a lot less than the tank). Then I turned under the neckline and armholes, sewed up the side seams, checked the bottom hem for evenness and folded it up. If you want to be more careful, here is a lovely tutorial on making a masking tape pattern from an existing garment (the tutorial is for pants, but it will work with anything).

To mimic the original seams, I used a twin needle: two top threads, one bobbin thread zig-zagging between them. If you have a serger, you're in great shape for sewing t-shirts, but if not, this is the best approximation an ordinary home sewing machine can make, and you're at least guaranteed to have two parallel lines of stitching. Unfortunately it is easy to skip a lot of stitches. After I made my tank top I took my sewing machine to get a tune-up, and the owner (Michael Jarvis down in Newport, NH) gave me some pointers on sewing with a twin needle. Since the bobbin hook is not designed to catch two top threads, you can't avoid skipped stitches entirely, but you can minimize them by decreasing both your thread tension and your stitch length. Experiment to find good settings. Decreasing the tension to the point that the top threads are pulled under also helps the seam stretch, and likewise stretching the fabric slightly as you sew - steam ironing or washing will get it back to its original shape.

Actually, though, sometimes stretching out the fabric is what you want. As an alternative to a turned-under hem, you can cut off the fabric and make a tight zigzag all around the edge. The fabric will stretch and ruffle into a "lettuce leaf" hem.

Finally, I have some links for you, to lists of ways to alter t-shirts to make them dressier or more interesting, not just more fitted. The key search term for this sort of link is "t-shirt surgery", which I discovered after searching on several other terms. Here's what I found: Generation T, Not Your Ordinary T-Shirt, Fun T-Shirt Crafts, t-shirt surgery on LiveJournal, and T-Shirt Surgery on About.com. Have fun!