Recycled Ruffle Sleeve Bubble T

Look at little Dove, daughter of my dear friend Rebecca, who writes the awesome site Cooking With My Kid! Could she be any cuter? She came thisclose to being a native New Yorker, but was born here in LA (just like me, aww). So I had to make her a little I HEART NY tee, but I wanted it more girly than the usual.

It has a little gathered waist and chest, and some cap sleeves.  Super simple, a little elastic thread and you can make your own too! I kind of want to make a big one for me.  In fact, I think I will.

Get the full Recycled Bubble Sleeve T Tutorial after the jump!

And remember, leave a comment and you could win that gorg Alexander Henry fat Quarter up on the left.  BTW, I'm going to be saying "gorg" in every post this week in honor of Jacinda's husband.  Long story.


Recycled Bubble Sleeve T Shirt

First you'll need one t-shirt. I used a kid's shirt to make my baby t, but you could use a man's shirt to make a big one.


1. Turn it inside out and use a ruler to draw a big trapezoid on it.  You want to cut off the neck, side seams, and bottom hem, like so:

Cut it out.


3. Lay the shirt pieces together right sides facing and sew up each side. Turn inside out and your top edge looks like this.  You could serge it but you don't have to, the jersey won't unravel.


Using elastic thread in your bobbin, sew all the way around about 1/4" down from the top edge.  For how to sew with elastic thread visit this post about shirring.  Seriously visit it because it holds the secret to making elastic thread work in your machine.

Repeat 1/4" below that.  I made four rows.


4.  Now choose where your waist will be.  Sew all the way around with elastic thread in your bobbin, in rows 1/4" apart.  Here it is at four rows:

But I was having fun so I kept going, ending up with 7 rows.  I think a nice thick band of elastic thread stitching like this is so cute.  Then I chopped the bottom off (i already told you to do this earlier because your hem looks super weird if you don't).

Now you have a strapless top.  If you're down with your baby wearing a strapless top, then you're done.  You're also weird.


5.  So to make the sleeves, cut the sleeves off your original t-shirt, and slice the seam open so they lay flat.  Trim a piece off the hemmed edge, you will use this as your new sleeve.  Here's one un-trimmed and one trimmed so you can see how I did it:

Now on the un-hemmed side, sew two rows of elastic thread stitching 1/4" apart:

Then sew them onto the neckline of your shirt.  Just attach them in the previously made stitching rows.

Done!


Put on cute baby!!


 I love babies!!