super sweet stripes

aaaand we've ventured into clothing! i found this super sweet striped jersey fabric in a coral color on the remnant pile at one of the local fabric stores. there was about a yard of it - and woot woot! only $5! so of course i took it home.

now...what to do, what to do?

i considered a maxi skirt...would be super easy and quick. i could just cut a strip out of the fabric and not do anything with it (gotta love the beauty of knit fabrics that don't unravel!) and call it a scarf. but that would still leave me with  oh, a yard of fabric. i finally decided i wanted to make a shirt. a t-shirt.

i perused pinterest for potential ideas and tutorials and didn't come up with a lot. then i went to made-by-rae because i figured she would have something and whattayaknow she did! even more ironic was what she had was a just posted "kniterview", an interview with a fellow crafty blogger who uses knits a lot. that day the guest of honor was dana from danamadeit. she had a lovely little tutorial for a 90-minute shirt. granted it was for kids, but i took the general premise and applied it to my own project. and here's what i came up with!

i cut up an old t-shirt that fit pretty well and used that to draw a template on posterboard (apparently before i even started i assumed i would do this again). cut out my template, laid out my fabric and started tracing the template. because i didn't add seam allowances on the posterboard cutouts, i drew a half inch extra around the templates.

then i cut out my fabric and started pinning the pieces together. finished the collar but left the bottom and the sleeves unfinished so that the fabric would roll. sewed the sides and top together. tried it on. all systems were still a go so i went to work on the sleeves.

sewed the sleeves into tubes. now came the trickiest part. in dana's tutorial, the collar/sleeves are like a onesie which changes the way it has to come together. mine was a regular t-shirt. the whole "right sides together" thing kind of made sense but wasn't as easily identified. i ended up putting the sleeve on my arm, right side out, and sticking my arm through the armhole of the bodice which was inside out. pinned it together, sewed it on and hey it worked!

went to work on the second sleeve and my sewing machine freaked out so i ended up sewing it on, taking it off (grrrr...i hate doing that) and putting it on again. (my machine has tension issues which can result in really really ugly stitches).  but it is finished and i'm sporting it proudly!

now...what to do with the remaining 1/2 yard of fabric?!