Today’s post is going to be a quickie (but hopefully it’ll be helpful!).
I apologize in advance for the many color variations in the following photos. Who knew green was so hard to photograph?? It confuses my camera mightily.
So, Lisey had this long-sleeved hand-me-down shirt, and somehow, a hole happened in the sleeve area.
I’m always conflicted when I have things like this. I can’t donate them, because no one would buy them at Goodwill, and because I hate to throw things away, I usually try to think of some sort of fix or alternate use.
I’m embarrassed to say that this shirt sat in my, “I don’t know what to do with this” pile for a long, long, time before I had a revelation.
A long-sleeved shirt can be made into a short-sleeved shirt.
Duh.
So I laid one of Sonia’s short sleeved shirts on top of the long sleeved shirt (I put this off for so long, the shirt is now Sonia’s size, not Lisey’s!).
And I just cut the sleeves right off.
If this were a woven shirt, I’d have to hem the new sleeves to prevent fraying, but for some strange reason, knit fabrics don’t fray.
After a quick trip through the washer and dryer, the new sleeve edges are curling up just like I’d hoped they would.
Excellent. I love it when I don’t have to hem.
Of course, if you prefer to do things all proper-like, you could definitely iron the edges under and do a real hem, or you could do a lettuce-style hem if you wanted a ruffly edge.
This is good enough for me, though, and I’m pleased that this shirt will be play clothes instead of trash. Yay!
Today’s 365 post: She really is mine.
(by the way, if you’d like to get my 365 photos in your email inbox, just hop over to the main 365 page and enter your email address into the subscription box on the right. And of course, you can get Frugal Girl posts in your email inbox by subscribing. It’s free, and I promise there will be no spam. 😉 )
Sarah
Thursday 18th of November 2010
As for the Goodwill comments above, our town has a Goodwill Distribution center. Here is where I have found all the unsellable items with stains, holes, etc. They charge something like $1.00 for a pound of clothing. Not all of the clothing is terrible though and you can get a lot of shirts for a buck! :)
Now what I want to know is what did you do with that extra fabric from the sleeves? Hehe.
Emily
Thursday 18th of November 2010
So, this may be a silly question but...My 2-year old has a 24-month one piece, snap in the crotch onsie/t-shirt thing and I would like to take your idea and turn it into a t-shirt. Are all t-shirts made of knit fabric? And all I would have to do is cut it off just above the snaps? I hope this makes sense. Thanks!!
Erin
Thursday 10th of March 2011
I do this with my onsies. If it is just t-shirt material, it won't fray. I have done this to make play/sleep shirts from ill fitting onsies and onsies that live much longer as a t-shirt with shorts or pants. HTH
Jennifer
Wednesday 17th of November 2010
So ingenuous, good thing the hole wasn't on the body part, that may have been a bit harder. or in that case you could have ironed on one of those iron on decors for shirts. Either way your camera takes awesome pics.
Hazel
Wednesday 17th of November 2010
I had a quick look on google for sweatshirt ideas and I found this http://maidenjane.blogspot.com/2010/06/from-sweatshirt-to-sweet-tote-tutorial.html
You can't wear it as a sweatshirt, but at least it doesn't get binned.
Fudgie
Tuesday 16th of November 2010
Thanks great ideas. My friend is making old jeans into nifty purses. She sold them last year for $25 each at a craft sale. They are cute. Have a great day.