Upcycle: Shirt With Insert

Granddaughter Mia needed a black shirt for school, so I "shopped" in the "Give Away" pile in my closet! The end result is an "Upcycled", one-of-a-kind, shirt with insert that cost $0.00! Now, go shopping in your closet! Pictures and detailed instructions are included for this "Sew-Easy" project.

Question 1: Why did my nice shirt shrink (in length)?

My shirt, before

Question 2: Why do we only find out Mia needs a black shirt the night before?

Choices: 

1. Go shopping at Midnight!
2. "Shop" in my closet, and "Upcycle"!

I remembered I had a favorite black shirt that was a little short (it had shrunk), so I showed it to Mia and explained my plan. She loved the idea, so I went with Choice 2.

Step 1: Pleat the shoulders

I tried the shirt on Mia and measured how much too wide the shoulders were. I pinned and sewed pleats on the shoulders.

Step 2: The Insert

The "V" neck just would not work for this look, so I decided to do a Layered Look.

I always keep "spare parts" of "Upcycled" projects, and this white shirt was perfect! 

I folded and cut a piece from the middle part of the white shirt a couple of inches wider than the "V", and pinned it into place.

I used a straight stitch to sew the insert into place. 

Next, I trimmed the excess...

...serged the edges...

...and sewed the top edges of the white insert about 1/2" on each end to keep the edges flat.

The last step in this transformation was to roll the sleeves. After rolling them evenly, I sewed a tack stitch on each sleeve to prevent them from unrolling.

Mia loves the "new" shirt! She said the kids at school thought it was 2 shirts. She had fun telling them that it was only 1 shirt!

Upcycled, Layered-Look Shirt

My model, Mia

Mia likes her new shirt best with this silver scarf
(also from my closet)!