DIY T-Shirt to Skirt Refashion Tutorial Part I

We’ve discussed my rather serious obsession with “binning,” aka hitting up the Goodwill bins where clothes are sold by the pound, in Taking in a Skirt DIY Sewing Tutorial.  The ability to tailor an ill-fitting but otherwise perfect-as-is item is a great skill to have, however sometimes you will find pieces that have fabric in good condition but in no way work for your own personal style and/or body as-is.  This is where a little creative refashioning can go a long way.  All you need is an original vision or some inspiration from a refashioning website (one of my personal faves is www.refashionista.net) and you can take something like an old, tossed aside t-shirt and turn it into a cute, comfy mini skirt that is perfect for pairing with tights or leggings and a concert t-shirt.  Well, that’s how I chose to wear mine anyway.  😉

All you need for this project is a t-shirt, matching thread, and a knit skirt that fits you well to use as a pattern.  I’m using an old fundraiser shirt here which I scrounged from a big trashbag of clothing that a friend gave me.  All of my friends are familiar with my ever-growing scrap fabric/refashion stash and will often make contributions; thanks guys!  You can use an old shirt you have lying around or head to your local thrift store where you should ideally be able to find the perfect t-shirt for this project for a dollar or less.  While the logos on the front and back of mine are unwanted, I generally wear this type of skirt with longer shirts so the logos will be hidden since they are near the top.  I will be using the leftover sleeves later to cover the logos on the front and back and add some texture to the skirt, so watch out for Part II of this refashion.  Comment below if you decide to try this and have any questions!  Now, without further ado, here is the DIY T-Shirt to Skirt Refashion Tutorial.

DIY T-Shirt to Skirt Refashion Tutorial

Step 1:  Start by selecting your materials.  Choose a t-shirt that will fit around the largest part of your hips/waist and which is made of thick knit fabric with some stretch; it can be short or long-sleeved.  Make sure the fabric isn’t see-through unless you want to sew in a lining.  Use a shirt with no logo/design for a solid color skirt.  Alternatively, use a shirt with a logo/design that is placed in a way where it will intentionally show, or do some creative embellishing later to hide any unwanted logo/design.  You will also need a skirt which fits you well and is made of knit fabric with similar stretch to use as your pattern, and thread to match your t-shirt for sewing it all up.

Step 2:  Turn shirt inside out, lay on a flat surface and smooth any wrinkles.  Lay your skirt that you are using as a pattern on the shirt, lining up the bottom so that you can use the hem of the shirt as the hem for your skirt (this saves you from having to hem it later).  Trace lines around the sides of skirt with chalk or washable marker.  Lining up the hem of the shirt with the hem of the skirt is not a hard and fast rule, but simply a time-saver.  You can adjust the placement of the skirt on the shirt accordingly if you are working with a long shirt and trying to incorporate a design or logo; in that case you would simply leave an inch or so of excess fabric at the bottom to create your own hem as the last step.

Step 3: Put the skirt aside and add 1” to the top of each chalk line (this excess will be used to create a ½” waistband at the top of your skirt), then use a ruler to draw a straight line across the top.  Make any final adjustments to the overall shape of your skirt; I cut a tiny bit off each bottom corner because my pattern skirt was a bit too wide at the bottom.

Step 4:  Pin front and back of shirt together all the way up both of the side lines that you drew.  Leave the top unpinned for now.

Step 5:  Now that everything is pinned together, cut out your skirt.  Leave an inch or so of excess fabric on the sides in case any final adjustments need to be made, and cut off the top along the line that you drew since you have already added the extra inch for the waistband.

Step 6:  Using a straight stitch and a ballpoint needle, sew over each of your side chalk lines, removing pins as you go and backstitching at beginning and end, then tie off threads.  You want to make sure to keep ballpoint needles on hand as they make sewing stretchy fabric a cinch.  I’ve tried sewing stretchy fabric with a regular needle and trust me when I say using a ballpoint needle makes all the difference in the world.  Now go ahead and try on the skirt to make sure all is well, and make any minor adjustments as necessary.

Step 7:  Once you are satisfied with the fit, trim excess fabric on each side leaving about a ¼” seam allowance.  The jersey fabric most t-shirts are made of does not fray so you shouldn’t need to serge or zigzag stitch over your seam allowance unless you just really wanna.

Step 8:  Turn skirt right side out and fold fabric at top over twice to create a ½” waistband and pin.  Generally you will fold the fabric in so that the right side of the fabric faces out, however I do the opposite here because there is logo stuff on the right side of the fabric.  I’m planning to hide the logos later in Part II of this tutorial, so it works better for me here to create the waistband by folding the fabric inside out to make the waistband solid red as that leaves one less thing to cover up later.

Step 9:  Using a zigzag stitch and a ballpoint needle, sew along the bottom edge of your waistband, removing pins as you go, then tie off threads.  You want to use a zig zag stitch here to leave stretch for when you are pulling your skirt on and off over your hips; if you use a straight stitch it’s much easier to pop a seam later since we aren’t installing a zipper.

That’s all folks, now you have a cute little casual skirt that you can dress up or down, and one less forlorn old t-shirt taking up space that you know you were never going to wear anyway.  Keep an eye out for Part II as I have an idea for a way to use the leftover sleeves to hide the logos on the front and back and add a little extra sumpin sumpin to an otherwise pretty basic skirt.