Fashion Forward February: Making T-shirts last longer
by Amy Brayfield
All this month, we’re looking at ways to make your child’s clothes’ lifespan stretch a little longer.
My daughter goes through T-shirts the way most people go through Kleenex. The problem usually isn’t that she’s outgrown them — though that happens, too! — but that she’s managed to stain them in a permanent and very visible way. (You would think someone who’s happy to walk around with two huge ketchup streaks on her cheek wouldn’t be too concerned about a small stain on the hem of her sleeve, but go figure.) While T-shirts are pretty cheap, I hate throwing out a perfectly good T-shirt just because of a stain, so I’ve come up with some ways to slice and dice her T-shirts into lasting a little longer. Here are three solutions that have worked for us.
#1: Quick appliqué
Appliqué sounds French and complicated, but it really couldn’t be easier. Basically, you just cut out a shape from fabric and use it to decorate your T-shirt. Strategically placed, an appliqué or two can hide just about any stain — and because you can cut out everything from hearts and flowers to trains and baseballs, it’s an easy fix for boys and girls.
What you need:
- Stained (or just boring) T-shirt
- Fabric (old T-shirts or sweatshirts work great)
- Paper
- Pen
- Scissors
- Pins
- Needle and thread, or fabric glue
What to do:
Start by deciding what kind of appliqué you want to apply. If you’ve got one big stain on the front your T-shirt, it’s easy: Make a big appliqué to cover it. But if you’ve got several stains, you might have to get creative. My daughter tends to dip her sleeves in things, so I’ve done things like flower appliqués up and down both arms with no decoration on the front. Be creative — if you mess up, you’ve only messed up a T-shirt destined for the Goodwill bin anyway, right?
Use the paper to draw the pattern/s for your appliqué. Using your scissors, carefully cut around the outside of your pattern/s.
Pin the pattern/s to your scrap fabric, and cut neatly around the edges.
Pin the fabric appliqué/s to your T-shirt where you want it. Once you have it in place, you can either use a zigzag stitch to secure it or apply fabric glue to paste it on securely.
#2: Sleeve switch-a-roo
This is a little more complicated, but the results are really adorable. In this project — another one that works great for boys or girls — you basically slice up two T-shirts to make a new T-shirt. It’s particularly charming when one or both T-shirts is patterned, but solids work well, too. It works best with long-sleeved shirts; you can do it with short sleeves, but the sewing gets a little tricky.
What you need:
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